US embassy cable - 05PRAGUE1680

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRAGUE 001680 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/03/2015 
TAGS: PREL, YI, EZ 
SUBJECT: CZECH PM ANNOUNCES HIS OWN KOSOVO POLICY 
 
Classified By: Pol-Econ Chief Mike Dodman for reasons 1.4 b+d 
 
1. (U) Following a November visit to the Balkans, Czech PM 
Jiri Paroubek made the surprise announcement that the best 
solution to Kosovo's status would be a separation along 
ethnic lines.  Paroubek floated the idea in a press interview 
on his return from the November 18-21 visit to the region. 
He then restated the call during a parliamentary debate on 
December 1 in response to criticism from opposition leaders. 
This statement came one day after the government formally 
"took note" of an MFA policy paper on Kosovo that declared 
support for policy guidelines adopted by the EU and Contract 
Group opposing any partition of Kosovo. 
 
2. (C) MFA officials are now having to walk a fine line, 
insisting that the MFA remains firmly in support of the 
international consensus on Kosovo's borders, but no longer 
able to claim that their position represents government 
policy.  We have discussed the issue with officials at the 
MFA (most recently December 1 with Director of East and 
Southeast European Affairs Tomas Szunyog) and in the PM's 
office (on November 23 with Paroubek's Foreign Policy Advisor 
Ivan Busniak).  Both agree that Paroubek did not raise the 
question of borders during his meetings in either Pristina or 
Belgrade.  But both independently noted that Paroubek was 
deeply moved by a meeting in Belgrade with a group of Kosovo 
Serbs, and that this may have been the source of his call for 
a division along ethnic lines.  Busniak, as he has been 
reliably in the past, was very pessimistic about Kosovo and 
claimed that Paroubek left the region with his own deep sense 
of pessimism about prospects for the upcoming status 
negotiations. 
 
3. (C) Some Czech observers accuse Busniak, a former Czech 
Ambassador to Belgrade and strong Serb supporter, of being 
behind Paroubek's new proposal.  However Szunyog told us this 
was probably not fully accurate, noting that many of 
Paroubek's advisors are sympathetic to the Serbs (as, indeed, 
are the Czechs generally). 
 
4. (C) Szunyog confirmed press reports that many European 
government have formally complained about Paroubek's 
unhelpful initiative, including during meetings he had 
recently conducted in both Paris and Vienna.  In our 
discussions we have stressed that any change in Kosovo's 
borders would be a dangerous precedent for Bosnia and 
elsewhere, and urged that the Czech position remain 
consistent with that of the Contract Group. 
CABANISS