"Even Pavkovic Himself Doesn't Know How Many Apartments He Has"

Instead of meeting with Kostunica, on May 17 Vujicic met with Gradimir Nalic, Advisor to the President of FR Yugoslavia, to whom he intimated, as he wrote in a letter to President Kostunica, dated May 24, "some of his findings, without any supporting documents, because I did not have confidence to hand over those documents at the first meeting..."  He points out that on May 18 he gave him a letter which he addressed to General Pavkovic, but which the investigating judge did not give to the intended recipient because of possible hindrance of the investigation.  In that letter General Vujicic informs General Pavkovic that he intends to reveal various of his deals with apartments and other businesses, and "that a lot of water will have to flow down the Sava and Danube Rivers before the sullied reputation of the Yugoslav Army and its generals is washed off."

However, far more significant is Vujicic's second letter to FRY President Kostunica, dated May 24.  Beside his rhetorical questions "can I file suits against the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters and a group of Yugoslav Army generals or not" - that is to say, "can I go ahead and do this despite the fact that this will ruin the reputation of the Yugoslav Army, the generals corps, and even You" - Vujicic also writes:

"Mr. President,
The greatest part of the abuse of position, spending of budget money and illegal expenditures occurred after October 5, year 2000, that is to say while you have been in power!  I wish to remind you only of certain irregularities:

- Illegally and without and notice having been given to me, 16 apartments were purchased for generals in the Yugoslav Army;

- You authorizes the purchase of an apartment for the Chief of the Supreme headquarters; instead he purchased an entire house which was paid 60 million dinars (approx. 2 million German marks) from the Yugoslav Army budget; outside of projected budget costs and quite illegally 350 million dinars (approx. 12 million German marks) were spent on the purchase of 72 apartments;

- Over ten million dinars were spent on equipping Yugoslav Army radio and TV stations, even though the Serbian Government has still not approved a radio frequency for this purpose, nor do we have the appropriate staff."

- The gist of the letters written by General Vujicic boils down to a single message: either you stop the proceedings against me or I will tell everything that I know, and I know a lot because I jotted it all down.

ACCOUNTS, CLOSE ASSOCIATES, PRIVATE COMPANIES:  One part of this can be found in the Vujicic's defense, that is to say in the letter Vujicic addressed to the investigating judge in which he writes "how many apartments General Pavkovic and his family have and how many of those apartments were purchased from the military housing fund, probably not even Pavkovic himself does not know."  Speaking about the 16 apartments illegally purchased for generals who themselves set the prices which suited them and at an exchange rate of 1 German mark at 35 dinars.  Vujicic claims that just on the basis of the foreign currency exchange rate, the Yugoslav Army was defrauded by 560,000 German marks.

Since this lack of cash set in, Vujicic explains, every general was better informed of the bank account number of a private company to which the Yugoslav Army had to pay construction costs than they knew the postal code of the military unit to which their mail was due to arrive.  Everyone interceded for payment to private firms because they employed either a member of a general's family, their neighbors, friends, etc.  And when Pavkovic's close associates, together with generals Simic, Obradovic and Arsic, not even the American budget could take care of all the expenditures incurred.

Pavkovic accepted visits from directors who were usually wined and dined in private quarters, Genereal Vujicic continues his story from inside prison walls.  Pavkovic spoke to them about the great importance of the Yugoslav Army.  These were new directors of companies, following October 5, with whom Pavkovic wanted to establish good working relationships.  When Nebojsa Covic came to be wined and dined, Vujicic states that General Pavkovic ordered all canned food suppliers of the Yugoslav Army to be paid out, so that the FMP could collect from them funds owed.  "No one ever cared or issued an order for military pensions and salaries, soldiers salaries, etc. to be paid out..." Vujicic claims, stressing that when he was no longer able to carry out the maniacal demands of Pavkovic and other generals, he had to be replaced.  Pavkovic made him an offer of becoming his assistant and of getting the rank of general-lieutenant general.  "You couldn't get this even at the Pentagon," allegedly Pavkovic told Vujicic, who refused Pavkovic's offer.  

At a closed session of the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army, it was decided that the Yugoslav Army should found a radio and television station because, as Vujicic writes in his letter, it was noted at the time that this is not uncommon in developed countries.  The problem is that this year, the Yugoslav Army only got 32 dinars from the 58 billion they requested.  Despite the high amounts owed to suppliers and the high interest rates that the Army is paying, Pavkovic ordered the purchase of radio and television equipment, the construction of antennas, holders, furniture, etc.  Vujicic told the judge about this: "And all this was done without a permit from the Serbian Government for a radio frequency, without a program or plan for development, without experts who will work...  Pavkovic is spending state money, and on the other side we are paying interest and are unable to pay out salaries.  All generals visited the future television studio, took pictures and solemnly promissed that the television signal will one day be available in the whole of Yugoslavia.  And all this in an era when the Army needs to be restructured and rationalized.  There are rumors at the Supreme Headquarters that the director of the station will be Gloria Pavkovic, and its general director will be Milan Simic."

Because of the skyrocketing rating of the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army, Nebojsa Pavkovic, and the increasing dissatisfaction of his wife, Gloria Pavkovic, it was decided that a villa will be built in Belgrade's luxury district of Dedinje, in 28 Uzicka Street, that is to say that the old house there will be leveled to the ground and a new one built in its stead.  After daily reports in the newspapers regarding the villa in Uzicka Street and pressures from the Serbian Government, as well as from Slobodan Milosevic, Pavkovic gave up on the villa because he was short by about two million dollars for its finishing.  Serbia could not pay out this amount because a transitional government in power and there was not official order for this expenditure to be made.  At that point General Pavkovic dessisted from the villa, but Mr. Stamenko Nikolic issued an order for another apartment to be purchased for the general, and sent that order for signing to Yugoslav President Kostunica.  I was also present when the President signed that order.  At that time he was so confused that he probably didn't even know what he was signing.  At that time General Arsic began a search for a future apartment which he found in Jevrem Grujic Street.  After that General Pavkovic with his wife Gloria and Arsic went in search of a house.  Naturally after Uzicka Street nothing could be found for the money we had.  Finally Arsic came to me one day, drove everyone out of my office that was there and told me that Pavkovic decided to get a house and that we have to pay that immediately.  I asked how much money and he told me 60 million dinars.  When I said that this is too much, Arsic told me that we are lucky it's only that much, because Gloria set her sights on a building in Banovo Brdo which could be a hotel and not an apartment, but that he convinced her that this is better.  I asked him how large it is, and he told me around 350 square meters.  I wasn't lazy and inquired about the house and found out that its previous owner was Slobodan Sarenac and that he sold it to some lady from Nis who in turn is selling it to Pavkovic, but since she is an important person in the present government, she asked one million and hundred thousand German marks for it.  This lady demanded to be paid out in foreign currency.  Colonel Kovacevic suggested that we should withdraw the cash in the name of soldiers' salaries for the South of Serbia and than to exchange the dinars on the black market.  I asked every bank I knew if it is possible to do this differently.  It turned out that this was the only way.  Then I ordered two armored vehicles from the Supreme Headquarters in order to transfer the money to the YU Garant Bank.  Thus 60 million dinars were brought.  When they arrived, I came to see them.  I was afraid because these lads were very tall, like body builders with leather jackets.  One of them had a baseball had turned backwards.  I asked one of them where is the money and he told me here in a shoe box.  When he lifted the cover of the box, I saw that they were all thousand mark bills.  After this Arsic and the people from the bank took over the entire operation.  After this were does Pavkovic get the gall to form committees which will investigate other apartments and to delude the public with such matters.

THE OTHER SIDE:  The investigation against Vujicic is nearly complete.  All that remains are reports from court experts, specialists for finance, whose job in this case was very complicated, but there is no doubt that the complicated flow of money will be established.  For instance, it is known that Vujicic formed his own list of priorities, disrespecting the already established list, and issued forms for paying out suppliers for the Yugoslav Army who in turn did private favors for Vujicic.  For instance, YUMCO from Vranje got money from the Army every week so that they could pay out their workers, and in return for this Vujicic's daughter got a job with the company from Vranje.  Because her salary was small, Vujicic talked with the directors of YUMCO and his daughter was transferred to Belgrade as director of retail sales and got an apartment to boot.  YUMCO was only one of many companies with which Vujicic "cooperated."  Otherwise, next to him there are several other military personal who are being investigated for abuse of their positions.

It is interested that the accused had safe deposit boxes in banks, but that at the time that Yugoslav Army security personnel conducted searches, these safe deposit boxes were empty.  200,000 German marks were found in Zivorad Vujicic's apartment on the same day that a safety deposit box in the bank, previously containing that sum, was found empty.  Experts are also looking into Vujicic's activities with buying off credits with 15% markup.  There is a lot more to this, but Vujicic does not mention any of it in his letters.  He does not say either what he did with the money from the famous P-20, a bank account with 20 million dinars deposited by the former Director of Customs Mihalj Kertes.  Only the Chief of the Supreme Headquarters had the right to issue orders for the use of that account.  Vujicic's investigation and incarceration was expanded because he made use of that account also.  Vujicic writes about the money from the famous P-20 thus: "The P-20 bank account was set up by former President Milosevic, by Kertes and General Perisic.  They extended my prison term 'because of possible influence on witnesses.'  I ask myself how can I influence Milosevic, Kertes and Perisic?  That is simply absurd."