MOSTAR, Nov 7 (Hina) - The international community's High Representative in Bosnia has said those responsible for criminal activities in Mostar's Hercegovacka Banka will be brought to justice. It will soon be proved that looting and
money-laundering occurred in Hercegovacka Banka, Wolfgang Petritsch told a local television station on Tuesday. The bank's management, some politicians and stockholders ripped off the Bosnian Croat people, Petritsch said. He explained the Mostar-based bank had issued 88 million marks in loans, 80 percent of the bank's deposit, whereas the usual practice in doing so is only 15 percent of the bank deposit. The amount has not been returned and the High Representative called on stockholders to return it so as to save the bank. He also promised that small savers would be given up to 5,000 marks in indemnity. Last April, international community officials, with the help of NATO's Stabilisat
MOSTAR, Nov 7 (Hina) - The international community's High
Representative in Bosnia has said those responsible for criminal
activities in Mostar's Hercegovacka Banka will be brought to
justice.
It will soon be proved that looting and money-laundering occurred
in Hercegovacka Banka, Wolfgang Petritsch told a local television
station on Tuesday.
The bank's management, some politicians and stockholders ripped
off the Bosnian Croat people, Petritsch said.
He explained the Mostar-based bank had issued 88 million marks in
loans, 80 percent of the bank's deposit, whereas the usual practice
in doing so is only 15 percent of the bank deposit. The amount has
not been returned and the High Representative called on
stockholders to return it so as to save the bank. He also promised
that small savers would be given up to 5,000 marks in indemnity.
Last April, international community officials, with the help of
NATO's Stabilisation Force peacekeepers, seized more than one
million documents from the bank on suspicion of illegal business.
Moreover, Petritsch has accused the Bosnian Serb entity's
government of being the most responsible for the slow return of
Bosnian Croats to pre-war homes in the north of the country. He has
also accused the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party of years of
discouragement of Bosnian Croats from returning to pre-war homes in
the northern Bosanska Posavina area and of urging them to settle in
Herzegovina instead.
Petritsch also maintains that returns to Bosanska Posavina in the
wake of the death of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman have been
paid little attention to, and that during Tudjman's rule the issue
was suppressed.
(hina) ha