US CONGRESS COMMITTEE DISCUSSES CASES OF EMBEZZLEMENT IN BOSNIA

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Hina) - Officials with the State Department on Wednesday testified before the Congress committee for international relations that about one million US dollars were blocked at Sarajevo's BH Banka, which has gone bankrupt, and that claims on the embezzlement of one billion dollars of foreign aid in Bosnia were not founded. The debate on international aid for the reconstruction and development of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was opened before the House of Representatives' committee, had been prompted by recent claims in The New York Times saying the money the international community had given for reconstruction had been stolen in the Croat-Muslim entity. Speaking about the money given from the US budget, congressman Larry Nepper said it amounted to one half a million dollars of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which had been paid to the BH Banka, however, the money was not forwarded because the bank was facing bankruptcy proceedings. Some US$390,000 intended for the work of US diplomatic offices in Bosnia and transferred to the BH Banka have been frozen as well. Nepper, who is the coordinator of the State Department office for assistance to East Europe, said measures were being taken to return the money. Congressmen nevertheless demanded an explanation regarding the press claim about one billion dollars. David Dlouhy, an advisor with the State Department, said the journalist's impression was wrong, adding though nobody knew how much money had been stolen in Bosnia. Dlouhy claimed the money stolen was not foreign aid but mostly the money from BH public funds. The committee's president Benjamin Gilman said the fact that most of the money stolen came from Bosnian and not US tax payers was not consoling. (hina) rml