Drawing a Circle

On March 18, the Serbian Parliament flatly refused to form the Inquiry Committee to investigate Prime Minister Radoman Bozovic's responsibility, as the corruption of power flourished during his term and his two minister were arrested. On the other hand, the extent of the fight against crime is not limited, so that it could be taken, relying on the statement by the deputy leader of the Serbian Socialist Party, Goran Percevic, made in Arilje, that the fight against thieves is being expanded into the fight against big social differences. Percevic said that we could not allow it to be brought into the position of the South American countries where 5 percent of the rich control over more than 50 percent of the gross national product. Is the fight against crime turning into the fight against capitalism?

One holder of the savings account at the Dafiment Bank, who had in vain spent all day last Tuesday being pushed in the crowd at Republic's Square in order to withdraw his money, told a TV reporter, "I don't believe anyone any longer." It seems that there are more of those who "no longer believe" than those who had spent several days squeezing in the queue in front of the Hyatt to once again deposit their hard currency savings at astronomic interest rates at the Dafina's. All this is happening regardless of the fact that Boss Jezda's "Jugoskandik" has practically closed down the shop, while the hopes of several hundreds people that they will be refunded are fading. Not only the almost arrogant silence of the authorities over the Jugoskandik affair (Serbian Interior Minister Zoran Sokolovic did not mention one word about it in his address to the Parliament), but also the continuation of the obscure comedy regarding the Jezda's legacy have largely contributed to the dashing of hopes. Namely, the main person who was to fully and amply reimburse the savings account holders from what has been left of Jezda's capital in the country - the lawyer Stevan Protic - has for ten years now been on the wanted list issued by the Swiss police following the investigation into forgery and robbery of 18,700 Swiss Franks.

The story definitely deserves more space.

The moment when Television Serbia broke the news that Stevan Protic, the lawyer from Zemun, had been appointed acting director of "Jugoskandik" over the phone (March 8) the laughter echoed in the house of Stevan Gion in Novi Sad. But, it was a bitter laugh.

In the early 1980's the investigation was launched into charges of malpractice at the Izomont firm, which, Stevan Gion, the retired architect from Novi Sad had founded upon his return from Switzerland and Morocco where he was a guest worker. For his defence Gion hired the lawyer Veljko Komlenovic (the former Chief of the Secretariat of Interior Affairs), who took on his fellow colleague from Zemun, Stevan Protic, as an assistant. Gion claims that the defence provided by the lawyers' duo represents the robbery, since they used the documents which the police found during the search of his flat. One of this documents was his old savings account book of the "Sweizerische Volksbank" in Bazel, where he had deposited 38,000 Franks. Although the deposit had been transferred to the new book, Stevan Protic, as Gion claims, managed to withdraw 18,700 Franks form Carl Ramstein, the teller, with forged proxy on the old book on August 27, 1984.

Stevan Gion says that it took him the whole year to find out that his account had "shrunk", all until his son got arrested in Bazel in front of the bank's window for making fuss over not being able to withdraw the money. And, then, a true film-like story began. As soon as Gion reported to the local authorities that he had been robbed by Protic, in a counter attack Protic accused him of libel, so that the Court in Novi Sad sentenced Gion to six months in prison.

With much difficulties Gion appealed against the sentence and launched the civil suit against the lawyer Protic before the Fourth Municipal Court in Belgrade. After he had hotly contested all alleged charges in the trial, Portic subsequently admitted to have withdrawn the sum of 18,700 Franks, but said that he had the money put in allegedly Gion's safe deposit box in the same city. When asked in what bank it was, Protic replied that he could not remember in which bank the safe is, claiming that he would not be able to find that bank in Bazel.

It is interesting to note that the criminal charges against Protic were brought already on April 24, 1984, but that the judge Mirjana Polic has not passed the verdict yet. Gion has, meantime, done all he could so that the law is enforced - he demanded that Polic be disqualified, brought charges against her and lodged the complaint against her prejudiced conduct even to the Republic's Secretariat for Legislature and Administration but no ruling against her has been made until the present day.

With all due caution to the story which Stevan Gion told us, waiving a pile of papers, it should be noted that there are several indisputable facts which are of interest for our story about Jugoskandik. The Public Prosecution Office of the Bazel-Stadt canton had issued the wanted list for the arrest of Stevan Protic because of fraud and forgery. According to the court records, he had stated that he did not know in which bank in Bazel he had put the money, so that he would not be able to find the building. God forbid it should happen again, is what the Jugoskandik depositors would say.

This "well-known lawyer of repute" (the Belgrade daily, Vecernje Novosti) has stated that he has never had anything to do with the police, except for his professional contacts with them as a lawyer, and now he has to beg the police for protection, since the account holders are embittered. Of course he has never had anything to do with the Swiss police when they never managed to catch him. But, whether he had anything to do with the local police prior to that - remains unknown.

Ever since Jezda left the lawyer Protic seems to have been more concerned with protecting the authorities from the dissatisfied depositors and from political embarrassment, than with working out a solution for them to be refunded. In keeping with this, he appealed to the depositors not to create fertile ground for uncontrolled reaction with their agitation in front of the banks or in other places, and, practically, accused his superior of having pulled him in a dangerous game of "some forces which undermine the internal stability in our country."

Throughout last week Jezdimir Vasiljevic was sending messages of different kinds to his clients. One of the last, says that he will refund his depositors in Hungary, where he would organize a "bus lift". But, less than ten million DM has been found in the country, after Protic had finally managed to find Jezda's safe deposit, where he deposited the money collected in the bank's branches. 100 gold bars (about 3 million DM), a bag of gold coins and 3.5 million DM in bank-notes have been found in the vault in Marsala Tolbuhina Street.

It still has not been established how much money has been withdrawn by the Jugoskandik employers from their own and their friends' accounts (in the first 48 hours from Jezda's departure), but it is roughly estimated that the bank's savings portfolio amounts to 120 million DM. What is most absurd is the whole thing is that those who had been damaged will, from the legal point of view, have to sue the Small Businesses Bank in Podgorica, which granted a banking cover to Jezda to collect the hard currency as well as the savings books. It seems that they were not naive as well.

The sensational news was released on March 15 that the Court in Podgorica put a ban on sales of 62,900,805 liters of super petrol which Jezda had imported, while allegedly the Kotor reservoirs are holding only 8,733,000 liters. It follows that 54,000 tons of petrol have evaporated. And those who will fight Jugoskandik in court in the forthcoming decades will surely not allow that the money, which is missing in petrol, evaporates in Montenegro's balance sheets. And, if Vasiljevic was truly used in outwitting between the Serbian and Montenegrin authorities, then Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and his comrades have proved to be much more daft.

Some stronger bank than Jezda's Jugoskandik would have definitely not endured a two month long freezing of 80 million DM. And in someone happened to suspect the Serbian Government of having launched the fight against crime in order to put pressure on their counterparts in Montenegro, it seems that there is more reason to say that the undermining of Serbia's social security was effectively carried out in Podgorica.

As concerns the arrests of ministers Vlajkovic and Mihajlovic, the official inquiry has not rendered any information (till Thursday afternoon) after the brief announcements which had been initially released. Radoman Bozovic, who was the mentor of the two ministers while they were still in office, has thus far made no comments. He is better at keeping his mouth shut than Zoran Sokolovic, the Minister of the Police, who supplied a number of data in his report, but no names. It is true that Bozovic's brother has been identified to have been among those who had overtaken one of 6 Mercedes cars, which were imported one day before the December election on December 19, 1992. Besides him, former minister Kicanovic and Vojvodina official, Visekruna, also received a Mercedes each. The hand-over of the Mercedes cars took place at the Horgosz border crossing, where four customs officers have been charged with obtaining cheap long term loans at the Dafiment Bank, whose hard currency securities have been raided these days as many people are trying to take the capital out of the country regardless of the risk involved.

While the press and public continue to provoke former Prime Minister Radoman Bozovic to testify about the transactions which his Government base on the ridiculous rate of the hard currency in the state reserves, Seselj's Radicals have tried to pull former Federal Prime Minister Milan Panic in this anti-crime epic. On the other hand, the current Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic will surely play low key concerning the affair. He has already stood up for Bozovic, his former superior, at the disussion on the occassion of his own inauguration. He said that Bozovic had had to carry out his duties when the sanctions were the toughest. Sainovic, as well as Bozovicm should be familiar with the fact that the whole cases (literally) of the state money used to be taken abroad to obtain oil, which the investigation at Jugodrvo has now publicly disclosed. Whether the Ministry of the Interior Affairs had for the whole week kept secret the lodgings of the so-called third man in the Jugodrvo company, for the sake of staying out of trouble, or for some other similar reason, is still unknown. After much anxiety, the man suddenly appeared, while the company's executives seem to spend more time with the judge for inquiry, than in their offices. Nikola Sainovic is also highly unlikely to be active if it comes to the futher purge of the Serbian top and its ministries, since he knows quite well how the Ministries are linked to the most profitable transactions in the industry.

The story should remind those few who have not realized yet that the authorities in this country are always close to the profits, so that the big concern for the national pride in these areas, by the rule, ends up with the money affairs. Therefore, the great fuss that the fight against crime will be extended in width is worrisome, while its reach in height, as it has been already assessed in the text, is mentioned less and less. It can't be that Slobodan Milosevic has already accomplished that what he had announced as the fight against crime.