Posts and Frauds

On Monday, March 26th, the District Court in Belgrade passed a decision on pre-trial detainment of one month to Uros Suvakovic (a senior SPS – the Socialist Party of Serbia – official, Milos Loncar (the former director of the Diplomatic Housing Company), Danilo Pantovic (the police captain and the former Secretary General of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs) – all of them suspected as contributors to the final contact, thanks to which SPS illegally acquired the ownership over a residence in 32 Uzicka Street. The former Foreign Affairs Minister, Zivadin Jovanovic was also accused of the same crime, though he was exempt from detainment thanks to his MP immunity. At the same time, Tomislav Jankovic (the former director of the Republic Bureau for Health Insurance), Nikola Mitrovic (director of the Institute of Radiology), Zoran Visnjic (director of the ‘Medifarm’) and Radoslav Sekulic (Mihalj Kertes’ predecessor as Federal Customs Bureau director and also president of the managing board of the ‘Best Farm’) were put into custody – there is a doubt that they embezzled about three million dinars from the Republic Bureau for Health Insurance. Two days before that, on March 24th, Nikola Curcic (general-major of the Republic MUP – the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and one of Rade Markovic’s associates) was also put into custody. In the meantime, an investigation was launched against Borka Vucic, the former director of Belgrade Bank AD. There is no longer a question why someone is arrested, only who will come next.

WHAT IS NOT KNOWN: Information on the latest arrests is more than scarce. The Republic Police Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said only that the ‘investigation adopted the police evidence’ and that he hoped that ‘the charges will be pressed’, whereas the traditional journalist sources managed to cover up everything they knew. A senior MUP official stated for VREME that there ‘will be more arrests’, although we found out officially that ‘nobody is crazy enough to talk since this is just the beginning’. The information service of the Republic MUP is willing to provide us with an ‘interviewee’, but ten minutes after we made an official call, nobody answered the phone. However, we found out that the suspects negated all charges during the interrogation interview.

The Republic Minister of Justice, Vladan Batic cannot provide us with more information either. He claims not to know either the reasons or the details pertaining to these arrests. ‘We announced that we would keep on fighting for the affirmation of the legal state, and such things are normal in any legal state. Nobody issued specific arrest warrants; the entire case is just a sign that the police and judicial organs are doing their job appropriately. As soon as I receive information from the official organs, I will notify the public’, says Batic for VREME.

ASSETS: Milos Loncar Mica, was appointed as a one of the head officials of DSP (the Diplomatic Housing Company) at a moment when the Federal and Republic governments decided to liquidate the existing company and establish DIPOS as a stock company within SMIP (the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Belgrade Bank AD and Vojvodjanska Banka are named among other stockholders. In the process of liquidation and the ‘liberation‘ of apartments for diplomats and their families, for whom they were intended, the majority of tenants, among whom Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, returned the keys of three villas. In some recent statements for the press, Loncar claimed that about one hundred luxurious houses, flats and villas were exempt from the housing fund, so the number of the housing fund fell from 590 to 420. He stressed that was not responsible for the reduction of the fund and that the property of the company was managed by two governments at the same time, and that he was pressured by the presidents of the housing committee Jugoslav Kostic, Vuk Ognjanovic and Zoran Vujovic; as well as Zivka Cica Knezevic from the Republic Government.

The warrant for opening an investigation into Loncar’s illegal activities was issued due to their participation in signing the Contract that misappropriated the former Australian embassy in favour of SPS (the Socialist Party of Serbia). Thanks to that illicit contract, the party acquired about 300,000 dinars and bought the villa in 32 Uzicka Street. The Australians have used that residence for thirty years, investing over one million dollar in the restoration, redecoration and security system. The then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Milan Milutinovic ordered, without explanation, that the Australians move out, though he extended the deadline for leaving the residence to another six months. DIPOS is also famous for attempting to drive out the Democratic Party HQ from 69 Krunska Street.

During his period in office in DIPOS, Loncar was also director of Novograp, a consulting and engineering company, which was also involved in the restoration of Yugoslav embassies worldwide. This company initiated restorations of the embassies in Paris, Cairo, Budapest, Thessalonica and Athens. On the 800th anniversary of the monastery Chilandar, the renovation of which was undertaken by this company, Father Mitrofan and Milan Milutinovic handed a golden medal to Slobodan Milosevic for his contribution to this monastery.

Pantovic is accused by his former colleagues for being one of the most ruthless among them. Apart from the fact that he was issuing diplomatic passports to Marko Milosevic’s bodyguards, his utmost responsibility is related to his financial business with SMIP. Uros Suvakovic, who signed the contract on behalf of SPS, Branislav Ivkovic, a senior SPS official, says that he ‘was accused of something that is not related to what he really did – as a federal purchaser, he signed the contract on acquisition.’ Lawyer Branimir Gugl, Suvakovic’s attorney, stated that his client was not a direct suspect – he is only accused of being a co-ordinator in a crime. Besides, Uros Suvakovic has worked for the State Security within the MUP of Serbia until October 2000, while the former Federal Customs Bureau director Mihalj Kertes said that he was giving him state money for the election campaign of SPS.

MEDICATIONS: At the beginning of November 1999, Milovan Bojic and Tomislav Jankovic co-ordinated the import of 80 deficient medications from China. It is well known that Chinese medicines were not adequately tested, that many experts publicly warned against their bad effects, as well as that the Chinese partners were paid the overall sum of 17.5 million dollars. Unlike the ‘Progres’ (the former Republic Prime Minister was the director of this company), which only took part in the import of Chinese medicines, ‘Medifarm’ and ‘Best farm’ are known to have dealt with such a business earlier. In a letter addressed to the then Minister of Health Leposava Milicevic, by the employees of this company, it says that this company was conducting the import via a private supplier of ‘Best farm’. Prices of that supplier were higher than those of other suppliers, the Republic Bureau of Health Insurance paid everything on time, but the letter revealed that the ‘Medifarm’ was just a mask for money transfers from the state safe to the budget of the ‘Best farm’. Radoslav Sekulic, president of the managing board of the ‘Best farm’, practically pleaded guilty by defending himself at the hearing for having to raise the prices because he financed the supply of equipment for the Fourth SPS Congress (Blic daily).

Zoran Visnjic is the least known among the arrested. As far as Nikola Mitrovic, director of the Institute for Radiology, is concerned he confessed on several occasions that he had some problems with supply of some medications. Tomislav Jankovic, the distinguished JUL (the Yugoslav Left) official, was appointed the director of the Bureau in 1998, since his party associate Nenad Djordjevic went to prison due to some illegal financial affairs. It is interesting that at about that time, Dr. Milovan Bojic rose to the post of the chief-of-staff at the Institute of Cardio-Vascular diseases in Dedinje. Apart from the affair with medications, regarding which Jankovic will have a lot to say, he could also be an important witness in the Bojic case.

DETAINMENT AND BREAD: The reasons for launching the investigation against all those mentioned above are not at issue this week. Still, they coincide with the enormous price growth of numerous articles as well as the tax reforms. The estimations of the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Yugoslav Left that the new authorities are attempting to divert the general attention from the actual economic problems do not work. Asked about that coincidence, the Republic Minister of Justice Vladan Batic says for VREME that those facts ‘maybe did coincide’ and adds: ‘You, journalists can even invent that it has to do with some astrological changes.’

In any case, it is worth hoping that the latest arrests are examples of the final implementation of the law, not just a cheap political demagogy.