UNCLAS BELGRADE 000861
EUR/SCE FOR PETERSON AND KOKTA, EUR/ACE FOR KEETON, H FOR CHARTRAND
AND CARTER
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV, PINR, PREL, SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA: STAFFDEL DESAI'S AUGUST 14 - 17 VISIT
Summary
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1. (SBU) During an August 14-17 visit to Serbia, a staff delegation
from the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on State,
Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (HACFO) heard about the
benefits and importance of U.S. assistance from a wide variety of
Serbian interlocutors and delivered a consistent message that Serbia
needed to put its best foot forward in order to remain competitive
in the battle for shrinking assistance funds. End Summary.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
---------------------------
2. (U) The HACFO staff delegation consisted of Nisha Desai-Biswal
and Clelia Alvarado from the majority and Anne Marie Chotvacs and
Mike Ringler from the minority. On August 15 the delegation met in
Belgrade with the Country Team, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Ministry of Defense, political analysts, multilateral donors, and
civil society representatives and also attended a reception for
exchange alumni, journalists, MPs, bilateral donors, and USAID
partners. The group traveled to Southern Serbia on August 16 for
meetings with the leadership of Vranje and for site visits to the
American Corner, Animated Film School, and USAID projects Natural
Food and Fontana Dairy.
3. (SBU) During the meeting with Dragana Filipovic, Director of the
MFA's Americas Division, Desai underscored the difficulty of
continuing to appropriate assistance funds when Serbia projects an
image of not wanting to engage with the United States through such
acts as the February 21 attack on Embassy Belgrade, the
Kosovo-related contact policy preventing high-level dialogue, and
the failure of Miladin Kovacevic to return to the U.S. to stand
trial in the May 4 assault on Amcit Bryan Steinhauer.
4. (SBU) Filipovic said that Serbia would return Ambassador Ivan
Vujacic to Washington soon, possibly in September, to finish his
mandate; he then would be replaced with someone who could establish
a new dialogue with the new U.S. administration. After first
arguing that the USG was blowing the Kovacevic case out of
proportion, Filipovic took the delegation's point regarding its harm
to bilateral relations and Serbia's image abroad. She promised to
work toward resolution of that case and the other bilateral
irritants in order to facilitate more frequent, higher-level
dialogue between the Serbian and U.S. governments. She added that
the remaining Hague indictees would be arrested, "the sooner the
better."
Ministry of Defense
-------------------
5. (SBU) The Chief of the Military Cooperation Department in the
Ministry of Defense, General (ret) Milorad Peric, stressed the
importance of maintaining a full normal relationship between the
United States and Serbia. He explained that the priorities for
military-to-military cooperation with the United States were
increased education and advanced studies of Serbian Armed Forces
members, expanded cooperation within the State Partnership program
with Ohio, and greater participation in foreign military sales.
General Peric mentioned the likelihood of Serbia opening a mission
to NATO at the beginning of 2009 and stressed good cooperation with
KFOR at the technical level.
Political Analyst Goran Svilanovic
----------------------------------
6. (SBU) Former Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic bluntly told the
staffdel that the United States no longer was able to affect
day-to-day events in Serbia, because U.S. power was on the wane. EU
influence in Serbia was far greater, he said, and as a result,
Serbian-U.S. relations now need to "go through Brussels." Svilanovic
stated that the EU and the United States should speak with one voice
and focus Serbia on the EU accession process through an approach he
termed "Copenhagen Minus and SAA Plus Plus." This would entail
extending candidate status to Serbia at the soonest possible date,
while foreseeing an extensive and intensive negotiating process that
would preoccupy politicians and prevent them from playing up
nationalism.
7. (SBU) Svilanovic added that Kosovo and the Kovacevic case were
obstacles to deeper ties, but that Serbia could not allow itself to
drift away from the West or become the heart of anti-U.S. and
anti-Western sentiment in Europe. Svilanovic commented that Foreign
Minister Jeremic's recent visits to Malaysia and Iran raised the
question of where Serbia's interests lay, acknowledging that such
actions did not send a pro-Western message.
8. (SBU) He characterized the situation in the Western Balkans as
"still a mess." He expressed concern about the deteriorating
political climate in Bosnia-Herzegovina since the failure of the
April 2006 constitutional reform package. If Bosnia breaks up into
two separate states, Milosevic would "win from the grave," an
eventuality which the United States and the EU must prevent by
asserting in no uncertain terms that no more states would be created
in the region. Regarding Kosovo, Svilanovic criticized the lack of
communication between Belgrade, Pristina, UNMIK, EULEX, and NATO.
He raised the possibility that Belgrade might be able to engage
EULEX through the UN.
International Donor Community
-----------------------------
9. (SBU) Representatives from the World Bank, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
emphasized the importance of success in Serbia for a stable future
for the Western Balkans. All of the donors underlined the
importance of U.S. assistance to Serbia and stated that it
complemented well their own programs and those of the European
Union. Whereas assistance from the EU tended to be targeted to
legislative benchmarks needed for EU membership, U.S. assistance had
been able to delve deeper into technical areas and gain the trust of
GOS counterparts. This has allowed donors to work together on
fundamental issues such as pension reform, securities and capital
market reform, and development in Southern Serbia. The donors
emphasized that continued USG assistance to Serbia was needed to
support success, not just prevent failure.
10. (SBU) The staffdel emphasized that Serbia needed to understand
that "the clock is running" on U.S. assistance, that Serbia had
limited time to make good use of assistance, and that given budget
deficits, a slowing economy, and competing demands for U.S.
assistance in other parts of the world, it was uncertain how much
longer U.S. assistance to the Balkans could be sustained.
Round Table on Civil Society and Rule of Law
--------------------------------------------
11. (SBU) The staffdel met with leaders of five Serbian NGOs -- the
Center for Free Elections and Democracy, the Faculty of Political
Science's Center for U.S. Studies, the Belgrade Center for Human
Rights, Fraktal, and Civic Initiatives. During a meeting held at
the American Corner in Belgrade, the NGOs told the delegation that
the United States and the EU had different priorities for assistance
with democratization: the United States focused on helping people
become active citizens, while the EU focused more on democratizing
institutions. U.S. funding was faster and more flexible, making it
crucial for responding to urgent situations, while EU funding was
devoted to projects which may take years to complete. The NGOs
agreed that as such the need for U.S. assistance remained great.
Visit to South Serbia
---------------------
12. (SBU) In Vranje, the delegation met with Mayor Miroljub Stojcic
(Socialist Party of Serbia), Assembly Speaker Slobodan Stamenkovic
(Democratic Party) and their deputies. Mayor Stojcic expressed
gratitude for Vranje's participation in the USAID Municipal Economic
Growth Activity (MEGA) program and for past U.S. assistance to the
municipality. He deemed cooperation with the Embassy, and USAID in
particular, a success and said he hoped that this cooperation will
be maintained in the future.
13. (SBU) The delegation made site visits to two beneficiaries of
the Security Contingency Planning and Economic Security (SCoPES)
program, the Natural Food mushroom processing company and the
Fontana Dairy. Oliver Varagic, owner of Natural Food, explained how
U.S. assistance would allow him to expand production over the next
five years. At the Fontana Dairy, a small ethnic Albanian-owned
family business in Presevo, the staffdel heard about the importance
of U.S. assistance in developing one of the most economically
depressed regions of Serbia. Zeinulla Ibrahimi, Fontana's owner,
stated that he had received no support from the central and local
government; USAID was the only organization that had offered
assistance to his company, which indirectly supports 600 Serb and
Albanian families.
14. (SBU) The delegation met with several prominent Serb and
Albanian politicians from the Presevo Valley. Shaip Kamberi (Party
for Democratic Action-PDA) and Stojanca Arsic (Serb citizens group),
the current and former mayors of Bujanovac, agreed that U.S.
assistance played an indispensable role following armed conflict in
the region in 2000-2001. Arsic stated emphatically that the future
of Serbia was in Europe and that continued assistance was needed to
pursue this goal. Riza Halimi, Albanian MP and head of the PDA,
contrasted the lack of interest by the national government in
developing South Serbia with the positive role played by the United
States. He stated that he and the other minorities in the
Parliament did not support the current government's Kosovo contact
policy.
15. (SBU) The delegation also visited the American Corner in Vranje
and the Animated Film School, a past aid recipient, where there was
an opportunity to meet with American Corner staff, exchange alumni,
and some of the children involved in an upcoming cross-cultural
workshop.
Comment
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16. (SBU) Embassy Belgrade very much welcomes the Staffdel Desai
visit. Though we had been delivering the same message to our
Serbian counterparts -- that their image in Washington was that of
non-cooperation and assistance was finite -- hearing the message
come directly from Congress was invaluable. Embassy thanks Staffdel
Desai for their interest in Serbia and looks forward to more such
visits in the future. End Comment.
17. (U) This cable has been cleared by the staff delegation.
MUNTER