US embassy cable - 05LJUBLJANA737

UNCLAS  LJUBLJANA 000737 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
ROME PLEASE PASS TO DAS R. DICARLO 
DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/NCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, SI, YI 
SUBJECT: SLOVENE PRESIDENT PROPOSES KOSOVO CONFIDENCE 
BUILDING MEETING 
 
 
 1. (SBU)  Summary.  On October 19, Slovene President Janez 
Drnovsek invited Contact Group (CG) Ambassadors in Ljubljana 
to lunch to lay out his idea of an "informal meeting" to be 
held in Slovenia to launch status negotiations on Kosovo. The 
invited would include Presidents, Prime Ministers and 
President of Parliament of all the parties (Belgrade, Kosovo 
Albanians and Kosovo Serbs) involved in discussing the final 
status of Kosovo.  Drnovsek said he had discussed this with 
former Finnish President Marti Ahtissari whom he expected 
would be appointed as Special Envoy on Kosovo on Friday, and 
who would be invited together with other representatives from 
the CG.  Drnovsek took pains to stress that this was to be an 
informal meeting with "no expectations" as to results, but 
for purposes of the players getting to know each other better 
without pressure "to perform:"  as a confidence building 
measure. He said Slovenia was motivated to make this offer 
out of a strong sense of its close historical ties as a 
former member of the Yugoslav Republic and as the only EU and 
NATO member among the successor states.  He made clear that 
PM Jansa and FM Rupel were on board with the proposal. 
Drnovsek said he would be traveling to Belgrade on November 2 
and would propose the idea to all parties at tat time.  End 
Summary 
 
2. (SBU)  On October 19, Slovene President Drnovsek met with 
the resident Ambassadors of the U.S., U.K.(also representing 
the EU), Germany, France, Russia and Italy.  The purpose of 
the meeting was to discuss an idea Slovenia had to gather all 
the relevant parties to the Kosovo status/standards talks in 
a neutral location (Slovenia) for an informal, confidence 
building meeting. (Note. FM Rupel has mentioned previously 
the GOS' readiness to play such a roll End Note.) Slovenes 
have been keeping a close eye on developments in Serbia and 
Kosovo and have pushed hard for status talks to get underway 
in parallel with on going standards work. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Beyond the Meeting: Ideas for Final Status 
------------------------------------------ 
 
3. (SBU) In addition to proposing this informal meeting, 
President Drnovsek shared his thoughts on points that an 
ultimate outcome should include.  Most importantly, the 
security for the Serb minority must be assured.   Serbs in 
Kosovo should have significant autonomy for their communities 
as well as a permanent representative in government and 
parliament.  He noted the strong emotional attachment have to 
their churches and historical sites in Kosovo and proposed 
that some of the most important Serbian cultural sites within 
Kosovo be given a sort of extraterritorial status.  These 
could be the types of concessions the Kosovars should be 
willing to make to Serbia in order to gain sovereignty. 
Asked about the need for NATO or EU forces after status talks 
concluded, Drnovsek said they would still be required, 
especially around Serbian settlements, but that once the 
Kosovars had their independence, they would be less 
interested in threatening the Serb minority. 
 
4.  (SBU) Saying that Kosovo independence was inevitable, and 
that everyone including the Serbs know it, Drnovsek thought 
that it needed to be accomplished sooner rather than later, 
months, not years.  He specifically mentioned 18 months as 
the outside limit.  A gradual approach was not the way to go. 
 He added that  Kosovo needed to start to take over UNMIK 
responsibilities now.  Drnovsek said that with the 
concessions from Kosovo and prospects for eventually joining 
Europe and the EU, Serbia would be able to move forward and 
to make necessary political and economic reforms. Kosovo 
would have to do the same. 
 
5. (SBU)  Comment. Drnovsek has strong political credentials 
both pre and post Yugoslavia.  He was the penultimate 
president of the rotating presidency of Yugoslavia, and he 
has held the position of Prime Minister and now President 
almost continually since independence.  He is well known in 
the region, highly regarded within Slovenia by all political 
factions, and his calm and even manner make him a natural 
 
 
mediator.  In this meeting, he clearly represented Slovenia's 
interest in helping its former compatriots to reach a 
settlement on sovereignty for Kosovo which would also ensure 
continuing peace and stability in the region.  There is no 
ambition to interfere in the ongoing Contact Group process, 
however, there is a strong belief that the time is right for 
Slovenia to offer its good offices in the area of confidence 
building.  As Drnovsek said, he, FM Rupel and PM Jansa "all 
speak their language." 
ROBERTSON 
 
 
NNNN 

 2005LJUBLJ00737 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED 


 
v1.6.2