Purge in the Head Office

Dojcilo Maslovaric, the former Yugoslav ambassador in the Vatican, has another good reason not to return to Belgrade. Several days after his term of office expired and after he had sent a message to his native country via Italian newspapers (in an interview to "La Repubblica') worded: "I am not coming back to Belgrade", the Yugoslav Left (JUL) brought an official decision by which he, who used to be a distinguished official of that party, is now excluded from that party's head office. Along with Maslovaric, the leadership of the Yugoslav Left expelled the famous businessman Dragan Cicic, who learned about this news while he was abroad - in the Republic of Srpska, where a branch of his business empire is situated.

CONTACTS WITH BELGRADE: The head office of JUL has not denied this information issued by the SRNA agency, yet it was impossible to find anyone in that party's headquarters who could explain the reasons of their sudden release. No sign has been received from Maslovaric, as we were told in the Yugoslav Embassy in the Vatican. "We have plenty of messages for him, the deal was that we should receive them, but he has not contacted us at all ever since he left the residence", said one of the embassy's clerks, Mirjana Markovic (with a remark: "I am blonde, and therefore distinguishable"), while Branko Pekic, chargè d'affairs in the Vatican, said that he could not help us. "Everybody calls us asking about Maslovaric, but we cannot contact the media', said Pekic excusing himself.

The officials of the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs are not co-operative either. The only thing we managed to find out unofficially is that Maslovaric does not have any contacts with Belgrade, but that they are still expecting his return. According to these sources, namely, he has to return the diplomatic passport, which he has not yet done, and he has to have himself issued a new one, and that he can only do personally in Belgrade. The overall matter is still complicated by the tension within JUL, though it is a question whether Maslovaric can be said to have lost anything at all.

At this very moment, our former ambassador to the Vatican is comfortably situated in Rome. He is married with a beautiful woman from Peru and, according to Italian sources, a very rich woman engaged with trade of immovable assets. Although he hoped to take over the position of Miodrag Lekic, whose term of office as Yugoslav ambassador to Rome has recently expired, he was aware that such plans are unlikely to come true, even before his exclusion from JUL. Some sources in Belgrade are interpreting that as a personal revenge of JUL's director, Mirjana Markovic who was, by the way, an intimate friend of his late wife. Allegedly, Markovic could not forgive Maslovaric for the fact that he remarried such a young and beautiful woman so quickly, as well as for his refusal to return to Belgrade. However, Maslovaric's explanation is quite logical - he did not want to interrupt his son's school year, began in Rome. On the other hand, the media in Italy deciphered Maslovaric's refusal to return to Belgrade, calling it a  move of a wisely informed man who knows when the matters are off the right course and when it is best to retreat from the regime whose representative he used to be. Maslovaric neither confirmed nor denied this in his interview to "La Repubblica', stressing that he is a diplomat above all, not a politician, and that such estimations cannot be expected from him. Still, Maslovaric commented that "Serbia is in an unstable, difficult situation, one month can be a long period".

SPENT MILLIONS: An experienced former diplomat comments the whole case like this: "It went off in the same way as it came." It is generally considered that Maslovaric began his diplomatic career and got hold of the Vatican mainly due to his relations with the Belgrade married couple in power, which he often stressed. However, in the mentioned interview to La Repubblica, Maslovaric claims that he is a diplomat of career and that his term of office in the Vatican had nothing to do with the Milosevic-Markovic couple.

The mentioned Roman ambassador Lekic, on the other hand, thinks that these relationships have a lot to do with Maslovaric's appointment. The former Vatican ambassador received funds for restoring the building of the embassy, in spite of the fact that it was in quite a good condition and under a court dispute. It is about the building which Mussolini had given as a present to Pavelic and NDH, due to which Croatia, and subsequently Slovenia, sued FRY. The building, for the restoration of which Maslovaric spent millions and millions, will be a subject to the process of succession. Maslovaric's prodigality, although it has long been talked about that, cannot be treated as a good reason for JUL decision to expell him, since it is about the party which cannot be said to avoid wealth and ostentation. In any case, the Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs was informed by means of a letter about everything Maslovaric did in the Vatican and in Rome, yet he did not react in any way.

In the meantime, the ambassador chairs in Rome and the Vatican are reserved for Yugoslavia, but they still remain unoccupied. No one from the embassies in question knows when their occupation might take place, just as in the Italian Embassy in Belgrade, no one knows when they can hope for the mandate of a new Italian ambassador, since the old one, Ricardo Sessa left Belgrade after his term of office had expired two months ago.

As far as the other émigré - Dragan Cicic is concerned, he himself says to VREME that due to his exclusion from JUL, he loses much less than Maslovaric. "I was not officially informed about my expulsion from that party and I do not even care", says Cicic. "It is their business, their loss will be greater than mine. I have never really been politically active, apart from twice facilitating the elections in Sandzak. At least they will not be able to grab hold of my money, which they used to do whenever and for whatever reason they could", claims Cicic for VREME, which is a public rumour that the parties in power are actually imposing taxes on the distinguished businessmen within or without their orders.

TAX IMPOSITION: If Cicic's words are worth believing, it has to be admitted that he was the one from whom there was so much to be got hold of. He is, namely, the owner of the corporation Galames, the Serbian replica of Gavrilovic, and of the company Drvoplast, with its seat in Kraljevo. Even before JUL's decision to expel him from the party, Cicic started to extinguish his business on the territory of Serbia, transferring it to the Republic of Srpska, where he has his branch in Banjaluka, though he also shifted one part of his business to Brcko. As some sources have it, Cicic is apparently planning to return to his native Petrinja, where he used to work for the company Gavrilovic, since, thanks to a smart strategy, he managed to maintain good relationships with Croatia.

In Belgrade, as it usually happens, various stories circulate about Cicic's wealth. In Kraljevo, from where he is gradually moving away his empire, Cicic had also built a small zoo, which house several sorts of exotic animals, and a restaurant for 600 guests, which was frequently visited by leaders of the parties in power. However, to the question, why he has not left the party by his own will, Cicic had no other answer than a sour smile.

What really provoked the disturbance in the relationship between Cicic and JUL, and what was the immediate cause for his expulsion from that party's head office, remains in the domain of indiscernible. It is only known that Mirjana Markovic was not very much pleased with his business success. She allegedly ignored him during her visit to Raska, which was inconceivable for other officials of the coalition in power. Something like that could not have happened to the current adviser of President Slobodan Milosevic, Zoran Lilic, claim the VREME sources.

In any case, neither Maslovaric, nor Cicic can be considered victims of the regime. Nor can it be said that JUL is in the state of disintegration. The former Yugoslav ambassador in the Vatican had taken a lot of advantage from being a member of JUL, if nothing else then at least by having enjoyed the position of ambassador. However, he enjoyed much more benefit from having been able to control various businesses, such as the privatisation of the Serbian Telecom, in which he mediated between the Italian STET and the Serbian side, and which surely did not remain without reward.

As far as Cicic is concerned, it is said that he had told only one side of the story. He only talked about his being compelled to help JUL financially, but he "forgot" to mention that all his businesses were available to him thanks to that same party.