US embassy cable - 04LJUBLJANA1080

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 001080 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2014 
TAGS: KAWC, PREL, PGOV, ICTY 
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA FIRM ON MAINTAINING ICTY CONDITIONALITY 
ON CROATIA 
 
REF: STATE 254097 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Thomas B. Robertson, Reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1.  (C)  Pol/Econ Chief delivered reftel points to the Head 
of the Western Balkans Department at the MFA, Peter Reberc. 
Reberc is recently returned from eight years in Rome first at 
the Slovene Mission to the Holy See and then the bilateral 
Mission.  He explained that the Government of Slovenia is 
very concerned about the poor precedent that would be set in 
the region if Croatia were not held firmly to the ICTY 
conditionality prior to opening negotiations with the EU.  It 
was his personal view that once negotiations opened, a great 
deal of leverage on the ICTY issue would be lost.  Reberc 
pledged to share the U.S. view on this issue with State 
Secretary Logar at tomorrow morning's CORPRER preparatory 
 
SIPDIS 
meeting. 
 
2.  (C) On Slovenia-Croatia relations in general, Reberc says 
that he has been fighting an uphill battle in his two months 
on the job.  He hopes that with the return of Dimitrij Rupel 
to the Foreign Ministry, he will be able to weed out the 
emotional "public psychosis" from the real political issues 
with Croatia.  In his view, Slovenia should be presenting a 
more positive, forward-looking face to Croatia than has been 
the recent case. 
ROBERTSON 
 
 
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