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2,000%. Considering the massive unemployment and the large number of people without
income, this interest offer looked like a political trick to counteract the growing discontent in
the populace about the economic hardships the war brought them. An observer said:
“Somebody is financing a covert welfare system.”
Some aspects of these practices came to light when in March 1993 the Belgrade banker
Jesdomir Vasiljevic, the head of the JUGOSKANDIC BANK, cleared off to Israel.
The press
disclosed that this bank had almost 4 million accounts with deposits of almost 2 billion US$.
Where did these sums come from? [H: DO WE REALLY NEED TO ASK?] Before the war
Yugoslavia had had a flourishing tourist trade and an armaments industry manufacturing
mainly light arms for export, but after the repayment of 14 billion US$ in foreign debt there
was not much left over. Tourism has since foundered and the arms production is used in
the war.
The Serbian government also profits from the spoils from the conquered areas, but this, too,
is little compared to the actual need. Russian oil, and arms are delivered only against cash.
Western oil, e.g. from the MOBIL OIL refinery at Thessaloniki in Greece enters the country
at black market prices that can be 400% above the market value.
With its role in the drug trade via the Balkan route, Belgrade had got access to the off-shore
money laundering system, and this is where the source of the funds is to be found.
The
growing activities by the SERBIAN MAFIA steered from Belgrade in Western Europe is
surely another one.
In Belgrade there is a school for burglary which obviously is protected
by the secret services and whose graduates are posted all over Europe where they hand the
stolen goods to a well-organized network of receivers. Yet it is difficult to imagine that this
money source should suffice to meet the Serbian war bill, even considering the growing
importance of the Serbian Mafia on the Western European drug market.
Clueless commentators had repeatedly compared the practices by the JUGOSKANDIC and
its most important competitor, the DAFIMENT BANK, to the usual investment swindlers who
promise regular high interest payments on real estate and other investments to pull the
money out of the people’s pocket.
But reality is different. It is not small Serbia that is getting the funds out of the big shots on
the international hot money markets.
The same powers that gave the green light for the war
also arranged the financing. Serbia is not organizing this flow of funds; it is its beneficiary.
There are arrangements where local banks in Belgrade or offshore channels have been
used – for a fee – to launder on a monthly basis part of the cash income from the
international drug trade. Belgrade’s profits were not bad at all. Standard interest for
laundering is between 3 and 7%, but in view of the enormous sums made in the world-wide
drug trade dealers can pay up to
30% without smarting.
Israel Kelman from Tel Aviv holds 25% of the stock of Defina Milanovic’s DAFIMENT BANK
in Belgrade.
The fact that Vasiljevic of the JUGOSKANDIC cleared off to Israel points to his
key role in the war financing technique inspired by Anglo-American interests.
In a similar way, the U.S. banks had saved themselves from bankruptcy by a massive
infusion of drug money in the 1982 Latin-American debt crisis.
This has little to do with a
free-market economy. According to German police sources it was learned, while
investigating the Serbian Mafioso in Germany that, Belgrade did not offer any international
police co-operation and therefore is probably an easier place to launder money than
Switzerland. Cyprus, a well-developed offshore banking center, is the most important
operating base for the bankers of Belgrade.
The obviously successful financing of the war that was effected by financial interests behind
EAGLEBURGER and CARRINGTON (Committee of 300) is not due to excessive secrecy,
but to inactivity by the West. After observing the activities of the Belgrade banks for
eighteen months, everyone including the diplomats there knew that something was amiss. It
was known the banks were represented on Cyprus. Nothing was done, although the UN
