LJUBLJANA, Jan 9 (Hina) - The Croatian Ambassador to Slovenia, Celestin Sardelic, on Thursday voiced surprise by the newest media manipulation aimed at providing the Slovene public with allegedly new facts about obligations towards
depositors of Ljubljanska Banka Zagreb.
LJUBLJANA, Jan 9 (Hina) - The Croatian Ambassador to Slovenia,
Celestin Sardelic, on Thursday voiced surprise by the newest media
manipulation aimed at providing the Slovene public with allegedly
new facts about obligations towards depositors of Ljubljanska
Banka Zagreb. #L#
Sardelic reacted to claims by the representative of the Slovene
government in charge of succession, Rudolf Gabrovec. Gabrovec
asserted during prime-time on national television that the bank's
depositors were an issue to be dealt with by Croatia, because this
was a matter of succession and because Croatia in 1991 had agreed
that depositors be paid off according to the territorial
principle.
Sardelic says that the law on taking over the former federation's
laws regulating the area of finances was a public document, and
therefore could not have been concealed by Croatia, nor was there
any reason to conceal it, until the Slovene television "discovered"
it.
"The mentioned Croatian law is by content not equal to that of
Slovenia, according to which Slovenia had paid off its citizens.
Moreover, Gabrovec's interpretation that Croatia had also accepted
the territorial principle for Ljubljanska Banka is incorrect. By
transferring Ljubljanska Banka's debt into public debt, Croatia
only paid off those depositors who accepted this solution,"
Sardelic said in his statement for the Slovene radio.
He added that an enormous number of cases of depositors who
continued to have confidence in Ljubljanska Banka remained
unsolved, and that they were adamant to have their deposits
returned. Sardelic recalled that there were 170,000 such
depositors, and their savings, without interest, amount to about
EUR150 million.
"The most prominent Slovene economic and legal experts have for a
long time maintained that Slovenia should have done this (pay off
its depositors in Croatia), and even Slovene politicians admit this
in one-on-one talks," the ambassador said.
Slovenia is trying to buy time to continue negotiations about the
bank's debts under the auspices of the Bank for International
Settlements in Basel, despite the fact that the talks have failed,
he added.
(hina) lml sb