SARAJEVO, Oct 7 (Hina) - Croatia will not ratify the agreement on succession to ex-Yugoslavia's (SFRY) property until it is established what happened to the US$589 million which was in the succession account of the former federation's
central bank, a Croatian representative said in Sarajevo on Monday.
SARAJEVO, Oct 7 (Hina) - Croatia will not ratify the agreement on
succession to ex-Yugoslavia's (SFRY) property until it is
established what happened to the US$589 million which was in the
succession account of the former federation's central bank, a
Croatian representative said in Sarajevo on Monday. #L#
The Croatian government will insist that light be shed on how the
millions that were to be divided among the successor states were
spent, the Croatian National Bank governor's chief adviser,
Zdravko Rogic, told reporters after a session of the Committee on
the Division of Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Former
SFRY.
The session debated the division of part of funds in SFRY commercial
banks and of monetary gold worth US$77 million.
Bosnian Central Bank vice-governor Kemal Kozaric said the model of
division of the monetary gold had been agreed on, but that its
implementation had to be preceded by the ratification of the
succession deal in the Croatian parliament.
According to Yugoslavia's Acting Finance Minister Velibor Dugalic,
the authorities in Belgrade too are interested in finding out what
happened to the money Croatia seeks.
Yugoslavia looked for information but all answers were incomplete
and unsatisfying, Dugalic said, recalling that the country had been
under international sanctions due to Slobodan Milosevic's regime,
when communication between the SFRY central bank and mixed banks
abroad was broken down. There are no traces as to what happened to
the amount which, together with interest, reached US$645 million,
he said.
Before light is shed on this issue, the US$307 million in commercial
banks' accounts will have to be distributed.
Also discussed at the Sarajevo meeting were preparations for
negotiations on the settlement of Russia's clearing debt in the
amount of US$1.292 billion.
Kozaric said these negotiations were expected to begin later this
month or early in November, and that all successors expected the
matter to be settled as soon as possible.
(hina) ha