In the footsteps of the dictator's billions
National Bank of Yugoslavia is coming
Last weekend, the head of the National Bank of Yugoslavia, Mladan Dinkic, visited London. In the British capital, he was looking for multi-million dollar accounts of former Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

During the reign of Slobodan Milosevic, economist Mladjan Dinkic was one of the leaders of the democratic opposition in Serbia, and after the Democrats came to power in the fall of 2000, he became chairman of the National Bank of the FRY. In addition to financial stabilization, Mr. Dinkic declared his main task to be the search for accounts that hold billions of dollars misappropriated by the former Serbian dictator and his entourage. On behalf of the President of Yugoslavia Vojislav Kostunica, the head of the National Bank has already visited two banking capitals of Europe - Zurich (Switzerland) and Nicosia (Republic of Cyprus). London was next on Mr. Dinkic's list.
In the British capital, Mr. Dinkic met with the Chairman of the Central Bank of England, Eddie George, his first deputy, Mervyn King, and the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Stephen Timms. According to the head of the Bank of Yugoslavia, during the years of Milosevic's rule, $4 billion was taken out of the country, the lion's share of this money ended up in the accounts of the ex-dictator himself and his entourage.
According to some reports, Mladan Dinkic brought to London a list with bank account numbers, names of firms and offshore companies, which, according to the new Yugoslav authorities, may be associated with the ex-president of the FRY. He asked his London colleagues to check all these accounts and companies, traces of which may well be found in British banks.
The British declared their readiness to help Mr. Dinkic in his noble cause. Bank accounts in EU member countries officially belonging to Milosevic and his inner circle have already been frozen. But there wasn't much money there. Now all that remains is to discover the secret accounts. After Switzerland, Cyprus and Great Britain, Mr. Dinkic’s next business destinations, according to Kommersant, should be Germany, South Africa and China.

VLADIMIR Kommersant-KARA-MURZA, London

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 53 dated March 27, 2001, p. 10

Authors:

Vladimir Kara-Murza