VZCZCXRO5400
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHVK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0118/01 0221542
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221540Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0659
INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BELGRADE 000118 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE (P. PETERSON) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ASEC KCRM SR
SUBJECT: Scenesetter for the U.S. Visit of Serbian Deputy Prime 
Minister Ivica Dacic 
 
REF: 10 BELGRADE 90; 09 BELGRADE 469; C) 09 BELGRADE 924 
 
Summary 
 
----------- 
 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Ivica Dacic, who wears three hats as First Deputy Prime 
Minister, Minister of Interior, and head of the Socialist Party of 
Serbia (SPS), is perhaps the most savvy and intriguing member of 
the Serbian government.  As the head of strongman Slobodan 
Milosevic's former party, Dacic has laid out and is aggressively 
pursuing a strategy to legitimize and transform the Socialist Party 
into a modern, democratic, pro-European party.  To do so, he is 
using his government positions to demonstrate action - on 
cross-border crime, corruption, visa liberalization, the deployment 
of Serbian police to Afghanistan with EUPOL, and even a certain 
degree of pragmatism on cooperation with EULEX on Kosovo.  He makes 
little effort to hide the fact that his long-term goal is to run 
the Serbian government.  He has a long way to go, however, to 
rebuild a voter base still traumatized by his decision to modernize 
the party and enter into a governing coalition with Boris Tadic's 
Democratic Party.  Dacic has a transactional approach to doing 
business, including diplomacy - in return for the international 
credibility he expects to receive from his visit to Washington, he 
will likely be prepared to offer movement on the issues we 
prioritize.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
First Deputy Prime Minister 
 
------------------------------------ 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Thanks to the vagaries of Serbia's proportional electoral 
system, Dacic wound up as the kingmaker following May 2008 
parliamentary elections.  After protracted negotiations during 
which he was courted by both the democrats and the nationalist bloc 
of former Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of 
Serbia (DSS), Dacic opted for the pro-European course.  He exacted 
a heavy price on Tadic, however, obtaining the First Deputy Prime 
Minister title for himself as well as five   cabinet positions and 
the Speaker of Parliament for his party.  The Socialists' 
representation in the 27-member cabinet is disproportional to their 
20 seats in the 250-member Parliament. 
 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Dacic's status as first among the government's four 
deputy prime ministers gives him a certain protocol rank which he 
clearly enjoys, but he has not attempted to assert his theoretical 
authority over the other ministries which fall into his security 
portfolio such as the Ministry of Defense.  He appears to realize 
that he should not push his luck; this reticence also allows him to 
skirt issues which remain politically radioactive for his party, 
such as the question of Serbia's eventual membership in NATO and 
cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former 
Yugoslavia (ICTY). 
 
 
 
Minister of Interior 
 
------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶4.   (SBU) Dacic's primary focus within government is on his work 
as Minister of Interior.  He was a surprising and, to many, an 
alarming choice for the job.  Although his father was a policeman, 
Dacic had no prior experience in law enforcement or the judicial 
system.  Many Serbians were concerned that he would not pursue 
reform but rather would use the position to place Socialist Party 
cronies in police positions around the country and protect corrupt 
SPS officials by stalling investigations.  In the past several 
 
BELGRADE 00000118  002 OF 004 
 
 
months, however, several leading human rights activists have 
confessed to us that - to their own astonishment - they now view 
Dacic as one of the most effective Ministers of Interior in 
Serbia's recent history.   Most notably, he led the Serbian 
government's efforts to fulfill the lengthy checklist of steps 
required for placement on the Schengen "White List," i.e. EU visa 
liberalization (Ref A). 
 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) One of his early priorities was establishing cooperation 
with Serbia's neighbors on cross-border crime.  He has signed 
police cooperation agreements with his counterparts in Croatia, 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Hungary, 
Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, China, Austria, France, and Israel, 
and has followed up with a series of high-profile arrests of 
organized crime figures (including the notorious Joca Amsterdam, 
Ref B)  and narcotics traffickers operating in the Balkans.   In 
August 2009 he signed a cooperation agreement with EULEX which we 
understand has resulted in a certain degree of practical 
cooperation on border issues; they also reportedly collaborated on 
the investigation into the October 2009 drowning deaths of over a 
dozen Kosovar Albanians being smuggled from Serbia into Hungary 
across the Tisza River.  More could still be done, particularly 
with regard to combating organized crime. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Dacic has focused on the need to combat trafficking in 
persons, appointing early in his tenure an experienced, dynamic 
individual to fill the long-vacant Anti-Trafficking National 
Coordinator position.   Dacic has thrown his political support 
behind the Coordinator, who has the challenging job of coordinating 
all of the country's victim protection, law enforcement, and 
prevention efforts across several ministries.  While funding for 
victim protection and awareness is still inadequate, enforcement is 
on the rise.  Dacic personally issued an instruction to all police 
on how to recognize and treat a trafficking victim, leading to a 
significant increase in victim identification. Reacting to our 
letter to the Council to Combat Trafficking, in which we raised our 
concern with lack of funding for TIP victims shelters, Dacic asked 
the Finance Minister to allocate $85,000 for that purpose.  The 
Ministry is working with post to design a comprehensive anti-TIP 
training program for police officers, social workers, labor 
inspectors, judges, and prosecutors. 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU) While Dacic focuses most of his energy on cooperating 
with neighboring countries, he takes great pride in working with 
U.S. law enforcement as well.  He has been very open to cooperation 
with ICITAP advisors and DS-ATA programs, and shared information 
with us discovered during the course of an unrelated investigation 
that led to the arrest of a U.S. citizen on child pornography 
charges in New Jersey. 
 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Under Dacic's leadership the Ministry of Interior is 
working to increase the participation of Serbian police in peace 
stabilization operations around the world.  At present, Serbian 
police are serving in MINUSTAH in Haiti and in UNMIL in Liberia. 
Dacic recently wrote to the European Union's Robert Cooper to offer 
the services of Serbian police trainers in a EUPOL mission in 
Afghanistan.  He explained to us that Serbia's ability to 
contribute police is limited only by financial rather than 
political constraints; he is willing to send a significant 
contingent on international missions if funding could be provided. 
 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Dacic and his Ministry need to do more on one particular 
area of cooperation with the U.S., however:  ensuring that justice 
is done in the case of the Bytyqi brothers (Ref C), killed by 
Ministry of Interior personnel in Serbia in 1999 and buried in a 
mass grave.   As a result of a continued conspiracy of silence 
among the police, and a lack of political will by previous 
governments to get to the bottom of the case, the investigation has 
gone almost nowhere.   In a very frank conversation with us on 
January 15, Dacic confessed that he had only become aware of the 
 
BELGRADE 00000118  003 OF 004 
 
 
details of the Bytyqi case - and the level of obstructionism within 
the MOI - in recent months.  He told us that he was resolved to do 
his utmost to get to the truth, including if necessary firing 
anyone who would not cooperate with investigators.  He was 
optimistic that some progress could be made if a different approach 
was taken in the investigation, i.e., to identify the shooters and 
work back up the chain of command, rather than starting at the top 
as before.  His goal was to produce "concrete results" in the first 
half of 2010, although he could not guarantee that the effort would 
be successful.   In order to unblock the investigation, Dacic must 
send a clear signal to impress upon all MOI personnel that silence 
or perjury will no longer be tolerated.  We have suggested that he 
make a public statement announcing his commitment to finding the 
truth, and that he appoint a single high-ranking point person 
within MOI to lead an interagency task force and be responsible for 
producing results after a decade of inaction. 
 
 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Police reform and ICTY cooperation are two other areas 
where Dacic is not as forward-leaning as he could or should be. 
The OSCE has been working with the Ministry of Interior on police 
reform for several years, and while changes have been made at the 
margins there has not been a top-to-bottom reorganization and 
purging of the organization.   Public confidence in the Interior 
Ministry is increasing -- in a recent OSCE poll, 29% of citizens 
indicated confidence in the ministry compared with 24% in 2008, one 
of only two government ministries or agencies to show an increase. 
There nevertheless remains a significant perception that the 
organization is corrupt and repressive.   On ICTY cooperation, 
Dacic walks a fine line between his political constraints as leader 
of the Socialists and his desire to show respect for European 
standards:  he emphasizes that Serbia must fulfill its 
international obligations to cooperate with the tribunal and bring 
war criminals to justice, while at the same time making it clear 
that his Ministry will follow orders to arrest suspects if located 
but will not take the lead on the investigation.   (The 
government's Action Team coordinating the hunt for Ratko Mladic and 
Goran Hadzic has long been run as an intelligence operation rather 
than by the police.)  Dacic very publicly distanced himself and the 
ministry from the July 2008 arrest of ICTY indictee Radovan 
Karadzic. 
 
 
 
Socialist Party 
 
------------------ 
 
 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Dacic remains both the public face and the 
behind-the-scenes leader of the Socialist Party.  Although the SPS 
did relatively well in the May 2008 parliamentary elections, 
garnering 15 seats in Parliament (20 total with electoral coalition 
partners United Serbia and PUPS), its support levels dropped off 
considerably after Dacic opted to form a governing coalition with 
the Democratic Party.   Party leaders tell us that they are focused 
on rebuilding the party from the ground up and attracting new 
members from the ranks of the previously unaffiliated and the right 
by demonstrating that SPS's ministers produce results.  They claim 
an increase in SPS members under 30 over the past year.  (Comment: 
Given Serbia's long tradition of political patronage, young people 
often join governing parties in hopes of landing a public sector 
job.)   With the party still only polling 5% in December 2009, 
Dacic is not eager for new elections and appears focused on 
assuring the stability of the current coalition. 
 
 
 
U.S. Visit 
 
----------- 
 
 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Dacic plans to visit Washington and New York from 
January 28 - February 5.  In Washington, he is seeking meetings 
with the National Security Council, State Department, Department of 
Justice, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Congress.  He 
 
BELGRADE 00000118  004 OF 004 
 
 
will attend the National Prayer Breakfast on February 4, the first 
time a representative of the SPS has been invited.  In New York, he 
plans to meet with Commissioner Kelley and visit the Joint 
Terrorism Task Force.  As a former member of the Milosevic 
government, Dacic needed a waiver in order to obtain his U.S. visa 
for this visit; he proudly announced to the press in December that 
he had received a five year A-1 visa. 
 
 
 
Comment 
 
------------ 
 
 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Dacic views the opportunity to visit Washington as a 
turning point in his political career and validation of his efforts 
to legitimize the Socialist Party of Serbia.  His achievements as 
Interior Minister are in large part the result of his desire to 
show the U.S. and the EU that he is a forward-leaning, modern, 
European leftist politician.  We should acknowledge the good work 
he has done to improve regional police cooperation and congratulate 
him on visa liberalization, while pushing him to do more on the 
Bytyqi case.  Although it is outside his comfort zone, Dacic also 
has the ability to act as a check on others in government who are 
advocating an aggressive post-ICJ strategy focused on new Kosovo 
status negotiations; he should hear a clear message that such an 
approach would have negative consequences for Serbia's European 
aspirations.  End Comment. 
WARLICK