BELGRADE: COMPANY, GOVT. OFFICIALS REPLACED DUE TO ILLEGAL ARMS TRADE

BELGRADE, Oct 23 (Hina) - The Yugoslav government relieved of duty the manager of the "Jugoimport SDPR" company, Major-General Jovan Cekovic, and Assistant Yugoslav Defence Minister, General Ivan Djokic, at a session on Tuesday evening. #L# A government statement said that Djokic was replaced "as a Defence Ministry official objectively responsible for arms trade issues", after the Stabilisation Force discovered documents in the north- eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina proving that Jugoimport was involved in arms trade with Iraq and the training of the Iraqi army. The Yugoslav government has requested competent state bodies to investigate the operation of Jugoimport and other companies which trade in arms, and establish responsibility for illegal arms trade. Jugoimport has been requested to close its office in Baghdad. The government has stated that it will form a commission to investigate whether there had been irregularities in the issuing of arms export permits in the federal defence ministry. Yugoslav government officials did not want to give any additional information or comments while Radio B92 reported that the information on the illegal arms trade, published in the Blic daily, was actually the content of a letter Serbian Vice-Premier Nebojsa Covic sent to the highest Serbian and Yugoslav officials after he was told about the scandal by international sources late last week. "It is not true that nobody knew anything, many received that document, and I thought, after I learned about the document, that it would be very responsible and important to write to the most senior people in the country," Covic told Radio B92, confirming he had sent the letter on Friday. Radio B92 this morning reported that two weeks ago a State Department delegation visited Belgrade, enquiring about the operation of Jugoimport. The delegation met with company representatives and Yugoslav government officials, announcing that it would pay another visit by the end of the year. (hina) rml