-Caveat Lector-
Jela, are you in the even more thievish JUL, Yugoslav United Left of the
Red Witch? The workers have it right. Red Bandits...
http://lists.wwpublish.com/pipermail/leninist-international/2000-July/000039
.html
http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=Jela%20Jovanovic
Michael Pugliese
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/World/Yugoslavia/
http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/yugoslavia12.htm
Published Thursday, October 12, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News
Sifting through Yugoslav garbage yields signs of massive theft
BY DANIEL RUBIN
AND JEFFREY FLEISHMAN
Knight Ridder
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- For the first time, Yugoslav citizens are getting a
glimpse of how they made the Milosevic regime rich.
The democratic opposition, which has stormed the record rooms and the
shredded documents of many of the regime's key offices, has found cases
where bankers became millionaires when computers mysteriously added zeros to
their balances. They've learned that millions of dollars in worthless dinars
were printed, then converted to German marks that have left the country,
bringing staggering inflation this summer. They've found that a foreign
company had to pay a $2 million ``corruption fee'' to a manager in order to
sell $100 million of equipment.
Milosevic ``was here for a very long period, and he managed to destroy
everything that was healthy,'' said Milko Stimac, an economist with G-17
Plus, an independent group helping the transitional government. ``In this
republican government, all government ministers also ran the largest
companies.''
As these details emerged, more and more workers rebelled and forced
Milosevic cronies out of their cars and offices, sometimes brutally.
So far, however, Milosevic's political allies have frustrated new President
Vojislav Kostunica's efforts to consolidate power and dismantle a 13-year
regime that saw the country wage war and fall into economic ruin.
Milosevic loyalists struck back Wednesday. Some bosses who had been cowering
went back and declared their resignations invalid.
The Milosevic-controlled majority of the republic of Serbia's parliament
reneged on its offer to dissolve the government and insisted on controlling
the 100,000-member police. Whoever controls Serbia, which has 90 percent of
Yugoslavia's population, controls the country.
And the army issued a statement warning about ``possible negative
consequences'' if pro-Milosevic military leaders were purged.
But supporters of the new regime believe the growing evidence of massive
official corruption under Milosevic will undermine whatever legitimacy he
has left.
One banking source with knowledge of Milosevic's business dealings referred
to the plundering and corruption as ``Serbia Incorporated.'' The source said
banking officials in the country estimate that the Milosevic family alone
bilked $800 million from state coffers over the past decade. Milosevic's
son, Marko, who controlled the tobacco- and cigarette-smuggling rackets that
flourished under economic sanctions, garnered much of that, said the source,
who asked not to be named.
Economists for Kostunica's coalition parties estimated that at least 250
families with close ties to Milosevic grew rich by accounts being altered on
the national computer that controlled all money transfers.
``At that time, many bankers made millions by adding zeros to their
accounts,'' said Srboljub Antic, a founder of G-17 Plus.
Four months before presidential elections, Milosevic's allies flooded the
country with nearly worthless dinars, increasing the cash supply by 33
percent. They immediately used these large reserves to buy German marks.
That made them rich, but triggered inflation as the dinar plummeted in
value.
Seizing the Federal Customs Administration was one priority of Kostunica's
people because Milosevic and his underlings allegedly used it to rake off
huge sums.
Friday morning, after hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavs had filled the
streets of Belgrade, burning parliament and the state media building,
Milosevic had still not conceded defeat in the Sept. 24 presidential
elections. Zoran Djindjic, an opposition leader who ran Kostunica's
campaign, called on a fabled Serb fighter to storm Customs: Dragan
Vasiljkovic.
Vasiljkovic, who had led a paramilitary band called the Ninjas in the
1991-95 Serbian uprising in Croatia, took 15 of his former soldiers and
headed for the Customs building's inner sanctum.
``We were fully armed,'' the retired fighter said Wednesday. ``We had rocket
launchers. We just went through the main entrance. No one expected us to be
there. It was a simple charge.''
They found garbage bags filled with shredded paper, Vasiljkovic said.
Someone was burning documents in a corner. When Kostunica loyalists arrived,
they logged about $150 million in dinars and German marks and drugs, he
said.
Opposition leaders say Customs controlled alcohol, cigarettes, stolen cars,
and items barred by sanctions such as sugar, cooking oil and fuel.
Milosevic's son, Marko, called many of the shots.
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