CROATIA ENTITLED TO ONE THIRD OF FORMER YUGOSLAV GOLD - SAYS SKREB

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Hina) - Croatia should receive some US$114 million from gold and shares of the former Yugoslav central bank, which are stored at the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Croatian National Bank governor Marko Skreb told reporters in Washington on Thursday. Belgrade authorities however persist in preventing that part of the succession to the former Yugoslav federation process from being implemented, he said. Skreb explained the value of former Yugoslav deposits in the BIS three years ago revolved around US$600 million, but was now one third lower. "With the application of the key used in the past by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Croatia would be entitled to 28.49 percent of the property," Skreb said. National bank governors of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia arrived in Washington on Monday as part of the annual IMF-World Bank assembly. Representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), the fifth successor state to the former Yugoslav federation, were absent from this, the eighth successor states' meeting. Skreb said Belgrade's blockade did not affect Croatia's relationship with the BIS because, he added, the Croatian National Bank was with its deposit a member of the BIS, within which it functioned normally. The BIS demands that the gold and 8,000 shares of the former Yugoslav central bank be divided according to an agreement among all the successors, but so far Belgrade has been unwilling to participate. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is neither a IMF nor a World Bank member, which is why no one from Belgrade was invited to Washington. Unofficial sources say Yugoslav national bank governor Dusan Vlatkovic and his deputy may be on the list of Yugoslav officials who have been denied the possibility of travelling abroad. (hina) ha