Succession: Who Claims What

On September 3rd Ljubljana has gathered again the representatives of four former Yugoslavia’s republics that in front of the international forums together take stands against the interests of FRY. Of course, the subject is division of former SFRY’s property. The reason for the meeting (this time under the wing of Sir Arthur Watts) was the discussion of Watts’s last draft which attempts to level the gap between FRY and the other republics with compromising solutions.

However, this time too, the meeting did not flow smoothly; according to the leader of Slovene delegation Miran Mejak. Four former republics agreed that Watts’s draft is acceptable only in the part on the succession of the archives, but not in the part that summarizes the succession of the embassies, which would, according to the draft, remain in the hands of FRY. For this reason, as Mejak claims, it is necessary to considerably change the document, while the Croatian representative has not missed the opportunity to stress one more time that, as far as the negotiations on succession are concerned, "the position of Belgrade has remained totally unchanged," and that the draft as such is "insulting and entirely unacceptable" for Croatia.

So the destiny of the remainder of Yugoslavia's currency reserves remains uncertain, as well as the division of debts and the property of federal institutions whose value is estimated at $550 million (most of all, the Federal Foreign Affairs Department of ex-Yugoslavia), mostly real estate scattered over more than eighteen countries in the world. While it was written long and wide about the quarrels of ex-partners about money and inherited debts, it is less known that the permanent sticking point is also the real estate of the former country. The disputes started at the very beginning, when establishing the contents of the state’s property. Slovenia supports a narrower definition than the Yugoslav recipe - the statements of Slovene speakers, what’s left in republics should be left to the new states, and the rest of the federal property should be divided. Yugoslavia's proposals for solving the inheritance problem is broader, including state investments and the like into the state property. Such approach results are that each republic practically already possesses a huge part of "the state property", so that the division of state property (embassies, buildings of federal administration, etc.) is out of the question. The major part of former "federal property" is today still in possession of FRY. Diversions from this rule are rare. In short, Serbian and Montenegro diplomats still owns over 120 properties abroad. And in spite of the most recent intermediacy of Sir Watts, fierce disputes are still led over the division criteria for that and other property.

No to Spielberg

Production house "Dreamworks" whose founder and owner is Steven Spielberg together with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, has started filming "The Peacemaker" in Ohrid and Bitola without Yugoslav actors. The roles of the Serbs and the Russians were offered to Miki Manojlovic, Dragan Nikolic, Lazar Ristovski and to another well known actor whose name has not been mentioned yet publicly, and so do we respecting his wish. All four actors refused the offer. There are also details on the offered fee. Hints are that Miki Manojlovic was offered one million Deutch marks for the role of Dusan Gavric, the Serb bad guy, and when he refused, he was offered a blank cheque.

Miki Manojlovic is not currently in Belgrade. "He has certainly refused the role", says his daughter. She know nothing of the reasons for such decisions, nor about the amount in question. "He is somewhere abroad, filming something. He should be back in December."

Lazar Ristovski was willing to say only two sentences: "I have no comment"; and the second (asked why): " I refuse to comment."

Dragan Nikolic says he refused the role because he could not get the full insight of the movie. " I was planned to play the Russian. The called me to Bratislava for testing. They sent me some ten pages of the script, as much as necessary to prepare the casting. I asked for the script. They did not send it. I was suspicious about it... I haven’t read it, so I have no objective judgment of the scenario or the movie. It was clear to me that the thing is delicate and it is better not to participate than to participate. I did not go to the testing. I was busy, and I could not make the call. I did not wish to inquire later. We have not come to the point to discuss the fee, and I did not have any wish to inquire further. The fame is all around it and it is pity. There was no need for it. Working with Spielberg is like any other work - if you like it, you accept if, if not - you don’t, and that’s that..."

Murder In Front of the "Metropol"

A few minutes after Zoran Stevanovic (35) was murdered in full daylight in front of Belgrade’s hotel "Metropol" on August 30th, the police were informed about the shooting. They also had scarce information about the description of the murderer and the direction he headed when leaving the crime-scene. The police car patrols supposedly blocked the streets where the murderer was expected to move, but "the younger man with beard and a hat, jeans and blue jacket", as some witnesses described him, was not seen. Apart for the routine police procedure, no greater activity was observed nor was their any effort of the police to pursue the criminal.

The only established fact was that Zoran Stevanovic was shot by bullets from the gun "Scorpio", the usual weapon of the Belgrade underground. There are indications that some witnesses were not at the scene of the crime by incident, that they were there in fact to give different descriptions of the murdered or the murderers, since some of them claim that one young men shot and the second was waiting for him in the car they used to flee. The witnesses, of course, have not noticed the color and the type of the car, not to mention the registration. Other say they both fired.

The name of Zoran Stevanovic is not unfamiliar to the public. He appeared for the first time on November 28th 1990 when he was arrested together with Zeljko Raznatovic (Arkan), Dusan Bandic and Dusan Caric at Dvor na Uni. They were all charged for preparing the armed uprising since they left Belgrade for Krajina in a jeep loaded with arms "with the aim to bring down the democratic ustrojstvo of Croatia". According to the indictment "the second charged Zoran Stevanovic bought the arms illegally at the request from Branko Krneta (then the president of SDS in Nova Pazova). The money for the purchase was collected from the supporters of SDS.

Raznatovic was also armed so that the weapons "were dropping out of his pockets" said the press in Zagreb. It is interesting that Raznatovic and Stevanovic had weapons of "Heckler and Koh" brand with the engraved coat of arms of SFRY, which led to the conclusion the weapons were belonging to the police. "Arkan is a collaborator of the Federal SUP" said Radmilo Bogdanovic, the Minister of Internal Affairs at that time. The Belgrade underground claims that Stevanovic was also collaborating with the police, which in fact means that he had all the rights of the officially employed police workers, i.e., regular salary, social security, possibility of taking loans, rights to an apartment...

After the trial in Zagreb, the charged were released from custody, the state fell apart and Stevanovic has sunk into anonymity, but lately in the underground he has been considered a dangerous collector who dealt only with big money, say those that knew him better, noting that he could hold the victim by legs through the seventh floor windows until he said where is the money.

Who and why Zoran Stevanovic was killed will probably never be known. According to the well-informed, the big boss of the Belgrade underground said the following: "Shoot him, he’s been a nuisance to the entire city." Others say that he was far from being the big shark as rumors made him out to be. "He did not even finish elementary nor high "street" school", says a man who knew him well, "because if he emerged as a delinquent and criminal at the age of 28 (the Zagreb trial ), it was more than certain he would later make a mistake. I am almost sure that he underestimated someone, got involved in something dangerous and got killed. He simply was not experienced enough, and that experience is collected from boyhood, from the street "elementary" school on."