Customs fees siphoned: Milosevic indictment

BELGRADE - The indictment against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accuses him of enriching himself and his cohorts and breaking the law to ensure his party held on to power in Serbia.

The following is a partial text of the document:

"Based on evidence collected by the criminal police, there is grounded suspicion that Slobodan Milosevic as the President of Serbia until May 17, 1997, and thereafter as the President of Yugoslavia until October 5, 2000, committed crimes with the intention of securing benefits for himself and a certain number of persons, to secure to his SPS party property and other benefits with the aim of preserving that political party in power.

"He did this by overstepping the limits of his official authorisations, by issuing illegal orders violating Yugoslav law and the constitutions of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

"The implementation of these orders resulted in destroying the payments system of the country and causing monetary instability." According to evidence collected, the damage inflicted to the budgets of Serbia and Yugoslavia is estimated at $NZ220 million.

"In 1994 and 1995, Milosevic organised a group of federal officials and other persons and agreed with them and thereafter issued orders to violate federal laws ...

"All the activities, including the forgery of official identification documents, have the characteristics of criminal acts under federal law, for which prescribed sentence is more than five years in prison.

"Milosevic organised a meeting in 1994 with newly appointed Federal Customs Director Mihalj Kertes and Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic and Jovan Zebic.

"The meeting agreed with Milosevic's proposal that a part of the customs income should be redirected to a separate bank account set up with Beogradska Bank.

"The purpose of this redirection of incomes ... was to allegedly provide funds for public companies and state bodies in Serbia.

"The next meeting, held in 1995, agreed that a part of customs fees should be collected in cash. The money should later be directed to a circle of beneficiaries.

"On June 7, 1996, Sainovic and Dusan Matkovic were paid 900,000 deutschmarks ($1 million). On November 30, 1996, Sainovic was given 150,000 DEM and then another 100,000."

- REUTERS

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