The Patriotic Mafia

Judging already by the first reactions to this affair - it is very probable that no one will be able to keep the "scapegoat" scenario under control. The thesis that it has been planned for Sava Vlajkovic to be the only "culprit" among those in the highest bodies of authority is perhaps corroborated by the fact that two other people were also arrested - Andrija Jovicic, assistant trade minister and Divna Korac, market-inspector in Valjevo, which leads to the conclusion that the weight of the "abuse of official duty under article 242 of the Serbian penal code" will be placed exclusively on one chain of the decision-making mechanism and in regard to one channel of goods and bribery. To go on with this hypothesis - the idea was perhaps to preserve, in a way, the authority of the Serbian Government and even to save the skin of former Serbian Prime Minister Radoman Bozovic, whose "right hand" was defendant Vlajkovic both in the governments of Vojvodina Province and Serbia, by limiting the indictment to one or more cases (Vlajkovic-Jovicic-Korac).

The actual indictment was not fast enough to prevent the daily press from proving easily and with lightening speed, and due to the lack of a concrete story, that Vlajkovic and the others could steal in more than one way simply because such discretionary power is concentrated in the Serbian Government that even the All Mighty would find it difficult to resist. It seems that the story about corruption at the very top started almost harmlessly, perhaps even with a nice bag.

According to the story from Subotica (Vojvodina), four years ago an acquaintance entered the cabinet of ambitious and politically promising senior lecturer Bozovic, carrying a brand new bag. When Bozovic posed the typical central European question: Where did you get that bag? it turned out that the mentioned person had just gotten it in Backa Palanka from the sales specialist of "Merkur" Company, Sava Vlajkovic. With a brightened face, Bozovic observed that this was a man he had served the army with - so Sava was telephoned and a bag for Bozovic was immediately sent by the driver. From that moment on, Vlajkovic followed Bozovic, always holding a position where money, goods or rights are distributed. Did their careers split precisely on March 1st when, according to Belgrade daily BORBA, before leaving for an "informative conversation" at the Serbian Interior Ministry, Vlajkovic dropped by Bozovic's cabinet at the Yugoslav Paarliament - perhaps to seek protection. Extremely busy Bozovic, who was tailoring the fate of Yugoslav Prime Minister Kontic's government and of the National bank of Yugoslavia precisely on that day, promised later on to say something publicly about the case of his friend. One can only guess what he advised Vlajkovic to do. Perhaps it is interesting to mention in this regard the statement of Novi Sad lawyer Vladimir Horovica who said that "the defense expects Sava Vlajkovic to defend himself by being silent". Namely, even beginners in the field of law know that silence is the best defense when the prosecutor has wide maneuvering space and when it is best to leave it up to him to choose what and whom he wants. Because, if someone powerful wanted to protect the defendant, there would have been no indictment.

Why did the investigation start only recently? Did it wait for Bozovic and Vlajkovic to separate so that the former would be protected or perhaps in order for the Serbian Government itself to be protected? Perhaps Vlajkovic, relieved of his ministerial position, had just started spending enormous sums of money? This assumption is not very logical, because, according to reporters, the adaptation of the apartment, for which Vlajkovic allegedly counted out 250,000 DM, has already started, and something like that cannot be launched within ten days even without a permit from the city authorities. The daily POLITIKA offers yet another assumption - that Vlajkovic made some kind of mistake when distributing the 6 Mercedes cars which he allegedly imported for the patriots who kept their posts in the highest bodies of authority. However, people with such experience do not make that kind of mistakes, and when they do - they quickly correct them. The gloomiest assumption is that someone in the Serbian leadership finally realized that there is no longer enough flour under the state's control and that some mischievous hoodlums must be sacrificed in order to explain to the people why there is not enough bread. And Vlajkovic is suitable for such a role. BORBA has already estimated that around 200 private firms had obtained flour and sugar through mediators who were probably "in connection" with Vlajkovic's distribution of food "of vital national importance" from state reserves. Just rough calculation is enough to show how profitable this "trade policy" of the former minister was. Let's say, for instance, that the difference between the official price of flour or sugar and the real one was only 5,000 dinars per kilogram - the gross profit for the first 100,000 tons of goods alone would be - 500 billion dinars which is equal to Serbia's state budget.

There is, however, the old racketeers' rule that the biggest money can only be earned on the state and the poor. This rule, is perhaps gets its proof in all the versions of exports to the Serbian Krajina and the Serbian Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina. After the arrest of VLajkovic, Jovicic and Korac the press set out the assumption that the convoys with food or fuel, with Vlajkovic's official permit, went or allegedly went to Bosnia - at the official prices (and perhaps also with the support of the Central bank's export credits) and were bought who knows where and at whose knows what price - while they were "written off" in state storages as aid to brothers in distress. Because, it is a public secret that almost all the Yugoslav goods that are exported today have Bosnian, Croatian or Macedonian papers.

Sava Vlajkovic himself learned a long time ago the rules of the "Krajina trade and economy". Not only was he at one time the number one person of the "Yasa" sport equipment factory in Varazdin (Croatia), but he was also appointed by Bozovic, in the summer of 1990, president of "Holding Borovo" - a firm formed of the stores of the then still not liberated leather and footwear factory on the outskirts of Vukovar.

It seems that at first Vlajkovic thought that he would be able to "filter" business deals through a network of 223 stores belonging to this firm headquartered in Novi Sad. The firm was "ideal" for skillful entrepreneurship, because there was a lot of confusion in regard to it - it was not known whether it was a "foreign" firm, the new owners-liberators still didn't have behind them even what is now called the state apparatus of Krajina, and the people working in the stores also wanted some of the war trophies. In that legal chaos, Vlajkovic withheld 66 million of the then dinars worth of sales taxes (the figure now being mentioned is 90 million), he gave away 11 apartments and he included some private firms "close to him" in the sales network stretching throughout Serbia and Montenegro. However, he came across "hard ground". The boys from Krajina first took the apartments and then raised a fuss in favor of their immediate fatherland. In an effort to quell the rebellion, Vlajkovic, who was already the Serbian trade minister, carried out, on March 23rd, the decision on closing down all the 223 stores belonging to "Borovo", Two days later, the employees were in front of the Serbian Assembly demanding his resignation. Vlajkovic immediately issued a new order, annulling the previous one. But, unlike today, at the time Vlajkovic had someone to protect him.