Tuxedo Corruption

In case diplomatic relations with Australia shall be discontinued at the time when this country is crying out for reinstating its severed connections with the world, that shall, judging by all facts, be only because the residency of the Australian ambassador on Topcidersko Brdo has caught the eye of a certain important figure of this regime. In case that sounds unbelievable even for our circumstances, let's look at the facts. Last summer, the Company for Business Transactions and Maintenance of Diplomatic Premises increased the rent 100 per cent for the residency of the embassy of Australia, along with other embassies. In the specific case of the embassy of Australia, the amount was increased from 7000 to 14 thousand dollars per month. Having no other choice, the embassy accepted this price increase. Immediately afterward, the Australians received another letter in which they were informed that the rental contract with the embassy has in fact been canceled and were served with one month's eviction notice, again without any explanation or apology. Since such acts are highly unusual in diplomatic practice, the embassy addressed the Minister of Foreign Affairs Milan Milovanovic. The minister was in no hurry, yet following a lengthy wait and wrangling he managed to see the embassy charge d' affaires, Noel Campbell. On that occasion Milutinovic repeated that they had to evacuate the residency, but that the deadline shall be extended for another six months. That deadline expires on February 14. Following a remark made by Australia that during those thirty years - the period in which they have been using that residency- they had thoroughly renovated the house (roof, installations, security systems, park...) and that those investments cost around one million dollars. They were told that the Yugoslav side would reimburse them, just as long as they moved out. The charge d' affaires, who is, as we have unofficially been informed, completely shocked by these occurrences, has spoken of this problem with Branko Brankovic, the head of the Administration for International Organizations, as well.

Due to the enormous increase of the rental price, eviction notices, drawing up contracts for unacceptably short terms and other problems, the ambassador of Angola and dozens of the diplomatic corps, together with the ambassadors of Nigeria and Syria, have also asked to meet with Minister Milutinovic. They themselves, along with their protest, met with a more than cold reception, and word has it that they were ushered out accompanied by additional threats.

The residency problem was the topic of the meeting held between Milan Milutinovic and the representatives of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia at the time of the UN General Assembly session last autumn in New York. Although it is not known what Milutinovic had promised at the time, the conversation could definitely not have been pleasant, and whatever he had promised - he obviously hasn't stood by it.

The conduct of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is becoming all the more arrogant. The liquidator of the diplomatic-residential company Milos Loncar (further notes on him and his function shall follow further down in the text ) has, calling upon Minister Milutinovic, threatened the Australian charge d' affaires that he could easily be pronounced persona non grata in case he lays down too many conditions and insists on certain rules at the moment of eviction. His comment on the promise that their investments shall be reimbursed was that he shall not hand over such an amount and that the best thing for the Australians to do would be to abandon the house and move into a hotel.

According to the usually reliable sources, primarily owing to the understanding which he had shown for the problems of the Australian charge d' affaires, Vojislav Vucicevic, head of protocol at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SMIP) was transferred to another department. According to all accounts he was a first-rate professional, a discrete and invisible organizer who had worked in president Tito's protocol department, as well as in the protocol of the FRY Presidency. The new head of protocol has no previous experience in such activities, yet declares himself to be a Yugoslav United Left (JUL) sympathizer and his first duty in his new job was to organize the promotion of Dr. Mira Markovic's book in India.

From the viewpoint of diplomatic custom maybe even worse means of pressure, another tactic was used on the embassy of Australia. For almost three months, the procedure for issuing an agreement to Noel Campbell has been stalled, thereby preventing the elevation of diplomatic relations to the level of ambassador. This occurrence should be explained in more detail. An agreement in diplomacy signifies the receiving country's acceptance of a certain person as an authorized ambassador of a foreign country. It is usually issued before the new ambassador takes up office, and when the agreement arrives, the authorized body in the country which is sending the ambassador adopts a decree of appointment. In this concrete case, Noel Campbell was to become ambassador, a diplomat who had, in the function of charge d' affaires spent around two years in Belgrade. Mr. Campbell could not immediately have been appointed as ambassador, since he had arrived in Yugoslavia during sanctions when diplomatic relations with practically all countries were reduced to the level of charge d' affaires. What is of the utmost importance for this story is that a couple of VREME's sources confirm that Mr. Campbell had, during the sanctions, been extremely correct in his dealings with our country, that naturally he did not violate the sanctions yet had done all that he could - amongst other things, had put a lot of energy into founding an Australian-Yugoslav Business Council which was supposed to, directly following the suspension of the sanctions, help reinstate economic ties of these two countries.

For an answer as to what is contestable in issuing Mr. Campbell with an agreement, we sought out SMIP's Department for Asia and Australia and the protocol of that institution. We did not receive an official answer, yet we did get an unofficial one. Therefore, unofficially the agreement was neither issued nor refused, although it was confirmed that refusal of an agreement is not announced, and that following a certain period of time it is left upon the country which has sent the ambassador to draw its own conclusions as to why it hasn't been issued. It isn't unusual, as we were told, to wait a few months for an agreement, although it can occasionally be issued in a single day depending on the political assessment of the receiving country. Anyway, word is of every government's discretionary right to decide who shall and who shall not be issued with an agreement, and all that is in the authorization of the cabinet of the President of the Republic. Our ambassadors occasionally had to wait for an agreement for a longer period of time - Budimir Kosutic's example was given and his ambassador's seat in Israel which wasn't meant to be.

All that was said in the Federal Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SSIP) is partially true. Namely, one former minister of foreign affairs of Yugoslavia explained to us in detail that, according to the golden rule of classical diplomatic practice, it is deemed as decent to issue an agreement in one month, and after a month and a half, it is usually considered that the agreement has been refused. An agreement is usually refused if the personality of the future ambassador is somewhat disputable (Campbell has been here two years, meaning someone could have noticed that his personality is unsuitable in the meantime), in case the political relations of the two countries are disputable (they haven't been so far), or in case our ambassador encounters problems with his agreement (the Yugoslav government hasn't even asked for an agreement for our charge d' affaires in Canberra). If none of the above applies, then reasons should be sought elsewhere (for example, in the villa).

The former minister reminded that Yugoslavia had a few cases of rejected agreements. For a certain not meant to be ambassador to Vatican a discrete signal was sent out that the Holy Chair would rather see someone who did not have a disputable marital status (who isn't divorced). One truly boastful member of the media had already made it known throughout Belgrade that he is off to be the ambassador in Paris, when a signal arrived in Belgrade via the then French ambassador that Paris would not be willing to consider such an idea.

However, let's get back to Australia. The question as to how the conflict over the residency and delay over the agreement can reflect upon the Yugoslav-Australian relations was not directly answered, yet it was confirmed that according to SMIP's most recent data between 100 and 150 thousand people from FRY are living in Australia - what new, what old immigrants. We were told that, following a severance of diplomatic relations with New Zealand (that country is one of the three which had, when the sanctions with Yugoslavia had been imposed, completely broken off all diplomatic relations - the other two being Malaysia and Costa Rica) the general consul in Sydney had to cover around 25 thousand Yugoslav immigrants in that country as well. In New Zealand word is of new immigrants, primarily intellectuals who had left Yugoslavia following the breakout of this last war. In case of a decline of the Australian-Yugoslav relations, and especially eventual severance of diplomatic relations, all those people would be left without even the formal protection of the Yugoslav government, yet that seems to be of no consequence in relation to the possibility of snatching away a villa.

The whole story has its usually complicated legal side. Namely, last summer with the Law on Federation Property which was adopted in the Federal Parliament without the presence of the opposition, all buildings and apartments of foreign embassies, that is property which in the last thirty or so years was successfully managed by the diplomatic residential company, was turned over to SMIP to dispose of as it sees fit, which was announced in the Official Gazette. To be able to accomplish that, the diplomatic-residential company first had to go into liquidation, and the liquidation procedure is in progress now at the Commercial Court. The liquidation proposal was submitted in September, and towards the end of September Milos Loncar was appointed as liquidator. His job is to, amongst other things, draw up an inventory of all assets, to ascertain who is using them and on what basis, to ascertain the demand and collect the bills, to ascertain the debt and to settle it, and to go into liquidation after that. At the time of the existence of the SFRY, foreign diplomatic-consular seats were bringing in, officially through the accounts in our banks, around 250 million dollars per year, and a large part of that actually presented rentals of buildings, office space and apartments. It is interesting to note that Milos Loncar, even prior to having been placed as liquidator, had dealt with diplomatic property, mainly Yugoslav diplomatic-consular seats abroad. Namely, he was director of the company Novograp dd, registered in Novi Sad, which had at the time of the most severe sanctions, landed a contract for redecorating the embassy in Athens. Loncar had almost unlimited financial funds at his disposal, while the ambassador in Athens at the time was - Milan Milutinovic. Eyewitnesses claim that the result of the renovation was unbelievably luxurious, that in the attic apartments were made in the same style, so that Someone, when visiting Athens, would have where to go to directly from the airport. The consulate in Thessaloniki was renovated in a similar manner, while those well informed say that the money for these operations was acquired from the visas. That convenient source of income is the reason why the Yugoslav side never showed an interest in abolishing visas for Greece - although it is evident how much it would mean to our citizens if they were to be suspended. Loncar's company renovated the embassy in Paris ("everything glitters", said a visitor to the embassy) - from unknown sources. At the moment, Loncar is also in charge of moving Milutinovic's cabinet in the SMIP building. Since one of the goals of such activities is that Milutinovic can directly from the garage, by his elevator, enter his new cabinet, special wartime and emergency equipment of the intelligence service was thrown out from the basement garage, while the depots of SMIP's political archives are endangered as well. In the course of those works, telephone lines were cut off in the Federal Ministry for Trade - as well as in minister Sirardovic's office, but that ministry without much consideration and accord is to be moved out of the SMIP building where it had been situated for decades.

VREME posed the question as to the authority of Milos Loncar to SMIP's department for property-legal issues, which should answer for the activities of the diplomatic residential company. We were officially instructed to hand in a written application for a meeting to SMIP's general secretary. Unofficially we were first told that the department had no connection with the embassies, residences and apartments in Belgrade, that it still hasn't passed into the hands of SMIP, but is rather under the authority of the diplomatic-residential company which has gone into liquidation; second, that Milos Loncar has been appointed as liquidator by a court decision, as one of the judges stated in the Nedeljni Telegraf weekly and that Novograp's role in the adaptations was not debatable, since a tender was submitted, and it is in the interest of this country to let our companies handle such activities, due to financial as well as security reasons. Third, the former director of the diplomatic-residential company was ill over a long period of time, which created chaos in the company, and Loncar himself is in no way disputable. Fourth, the Australian's lease expired in August of last year and they were given a long deadline to "find a solution". They were offered another location with the best possible intentions, although that is not our country's duty, and all are working towards a good solution. They are only waiting for the experts to arrive from Australia to inspect it. It is understandable that the Australians are sentimentally attached to that residency which they have been using for such a long period of time, but what can be done? Foreign diplomats complain when their rent is increased from a couple of dollars to a more normal amount, but afterwards accept it and all simmers down.

The current situation, as far as Australia is concerned, is that Noel Campbell has gone on vacation from which, according to certain information, he shall not return to Yugoslavia.

Let us go back for a moment to the diplomatic-property company. In the interview given to Nedeljni Telegraf weekly on January 22, the judge of the Commercial Court in Belgrade Milenko Ristivojevic - which SMIP refers to - has literally said: "The role of the Court in that liquidation is to return the property to its owner. A republican law was adopted stating that the named property fund is to become the property of Serbia, which had renounced one part of its assets in name of the federal entity. Otherwise, that fund exists exclusively for the needs of the diplomatic representatives. When, in the midst of the sanctions, the number of diplomats in Belgrade was reduced, the diplomatic-property company was renting residential space to local physical and legal entities. This is why the liquidation procedure has been commenced so that those objects could be evacuated and handed over to the federal minister, who is the only person authorized to allocate that space in the future exclusively to foreign embassies and personnel which are now, following the lifting of the sanctions, returning to Belgrade. The liquidator Milos Loncar has received instructions to empty the premises so that the federal minister could take over its management. However, at the moment when they were rented out, certain contracts were made for longer periods, so that the liquidator was forced to shorten them. However, it is certain that not a single square meter of that space was either sold nor abalienated. No one can accomplish that without a court decision. In that liquidation procedure there are truly no malversations nor sensations".

This statement opens up more questions than it gives answers. First, the Law mentions a property take-over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the judge speaks of the exclusive authority of the minister. Second, why should Serbia become the owner of property which used to belong to the federation (SFRY), when a federation still exists (FRY) which had consistently called upon continuity with the former one? Further, what is to become of the assets which are filed as property of the municipality Savski Venac? The Municipality has adopted a decision some ten days ago that the buildings and apartments which the diplomatic residential company had managed are to be returned to the Municipality. The Municipality is the owner of 22 buildings which are managed by the above mentioned company (the residency of the embassy of Australia is, however, owned by the former federation). The judge further says that certain assets, in the absence of foreign diplomats, were used by "local legal and physical entities". Amongst the "entities", according to VREME's sources are members of Dragoslav Bokan's "White Eagles" para-military organization, who had seized an apartment of the embassy of Spain. The formerly acceptable state-controlled RTS journalist Rada Djokic had moved into a Slovak embassy apartment and usurped the furniture and equipment due to which allegedly the re-establishment of diplomatic relations of the two countries was hindered. Apartments from the diplomatic-residential company fund were later formally and legally allocated to various loyal personnel. Rumor has it that the diplomatic-residential company had financed a complete refurbishment of an apartment for Zoran Janackovic. Word is of personnel from Leskovac, the former Serbian State Security chief, a high profile official and general secretary of SMIP who had conducted the "patriotic" and ethnic cleansing of the diplomatic service, and is currently the FRY ambassador to Macedonia. In the last reshuffle former diplomatic apartments were given, according to some information, to loyal employees - Miroslav Buljancevic, head of the personnel department, Pera Boskovic, head of the department of information and documentation and the new head of the department of finance. According to unverified information, some apartments were given to Arkan's (leader of another para-military organization) men. The daily press has already published that the former residency of the embassy of Ethiopia was taken out of the diplomatic-residential fund in Bulevar Mira and is being redecorated, allegedly, for Zoran Todorovic (nicknamed Kundak), the JUL general secretary, and Hadzi Dragan Antic, director of Politika daily (according to certain information, for the daughter of the President of Serbia). Will all of the above named be kicked out of the apartments and villas which they had moved into in order to enable Minister Milutinovic to return them to the foreign embassies? Although official sources claim that it isn't true, Zoran Todorovic seems likely to become the director of the future diplomatic-residential company and is already preparing for his new post. Other sources however claim that Srdjan Smiljkovic is also seen as the future director of the future company, another top ranking JUL official.

Finally, what does it mean when judge Ristivojevic stresses that the goal of evacuating the buildings is to hand them over to the federal minister, so that he could allocate them exclusively to foreign embassies - when in the case of the Australians a foreign embassy is being evacuated which is causing immense diplomatic harm with the goal to allocate the villa to - whom? Another foreign embassy? Or perhaps to minister Milutinovic himself? Most of the sources believe that the minister himself shall move into the object in Banjickih Zrtava street on Topcidersko Brdo, yet shall most probably in the first phase proclaim it as the minister of foreign affairs residency (there is hardly a single case in the world for a minister of foreign affairs to have an official residency). Another theory states that the son of the President of Serbia shall move into the villa. He has allegedly already jumped over the fence of that residency in the absence of the charge d' affairs and played tennis there. The third possibility states that the huge gardens - over a hectare - shall be divided, as was predicted by the detailed urbanization plan, into three parts of which each is intended for one villa, so that all who should can live there. The very gardens seem to be the most desirable aspect of that residency, since the park is truly extraordinary, unlike the house (around 300 square meters) as various more beautiful villas exist in Dedinje. It is interesting, when word is of the residency of the Australian embassy, that this is the second time in the last fifty years that the same house is being confiscated. Namely, the villa was built in 1924 by Momcilo Nincic, minister in the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a professor of the University of Belgrade and president of the Society of the Nations (predecessor of the United Nations). Mr. Nincic was put on trial in the proceedings against Draza Mihajlovic in 1946 together with a whole group of renown pre-war Serbian politicians. He was sentenced, in absentia, to six years in prison, his complete property was confiscated - even though later even Milovan Djilas, who was delegated in name of the Central Committee for those proceedings, and the prosecutor Milos Minic stated that there were no grounds for a verdict, but that "Serbian politicians had to be discredited". However, the proceedings were never revised and following confiscation Djilas was the first person to move into the villa. When he lost favour Petar Stambolic moved in, and the villa finally become the residency of the Australian embassy. The heirs of Momcilo Nincic live and work in Belgrade, yet no one gave them a single thought on this occasion.