THE GOVERNOR of the Central Bank of Yugoslavia yesterday gave Cyprus specific details relating to the alleged transfer of money to the island by the country’s former president Slobodan Milosevic.
Mladjen Dinkic, who arrived in Cyprus on Monday, met yesterday with his Cypriot counterpart Afxentis Afxentiou and with Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides.
Dinkic was invited to Cyprus to discuss the issue by the government and the Central Bank, which has consistently insisted it had no evidence of anything suspicious taking place on the island.
After yesterday’s meeting, Dinkic told reporters that he did have evidence of illegal activities, in which Cyprus was used by Milosevic and his associates for the illegal transfer of an estimated $4 billion out of Yugoslavia during the 1990s.
According to reports that emerged earlier this month, Milosevic sent 173 kilos of gold worth $1.08 million to Switzerland between September and November last year and transferred the money abroad, much of it allegedly to a company registered in Cyprus.
“We brought with us certain account numbers, company names, offshore companies and we will track these,” Dinkic said. “There is a lot of data we want to track from 1989 until today.”
But Dinkic, who leaves the island today, noted that Cyprus was just one of many countries used by the Milosevic regime. “It was not the only one,” he added. The trail also led to Germany, Britain, South Africa, Switzerland and China.
In January, the Attorney-general gave the go ahead for the Central Bank to hand over the accounts of seven Yugoslav offshore companies to Carla del Ponte the Chief Prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Last October, the Cabinet froze the accounts of 12 such companies over possible links with Milosevic.
Del Ponte paid a brief visit to the island at the beginning of October last year as part of a tour of countries in the region to gather information about 38 associates of Milosevic.
Cassoulides said yesterday that since then the government had frozen an additional 18 offshore company accounts at the request of the tribunal.
“It has always been our policy that given the evidence, we are ready to co-operate,” he said.
“As the Yugoslav government has said, they have some indications, and now they have passed the information on to us, which is what we wanted all along to get the first lead.”
Cassoulides added that there were strong historical and cultural links between Cyprus and Yugoslavia and that the government wished these to be maintained. He also said Cyprus was the first country to co-operate with the Yugoslav authorities on the issue.
Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou also commented on Dinkic’s visit yesterday.
“This issue is something that is troubling the government,” he said. “I can’t hide from you the fact that we are not happy about the negative publicity surrounding Cyprus’ name, but I repeat that the government has always co-operated fully with anyone asking for information within the framework of investigating these cases.”
On Tuesday, Washington said it was looking for the “fullest” co-operation from Cyprus in tracking down the ‘Milosevic millions’.
“There is some co-operation which is obviously welcome, but we would look for the fullest possible co-operation between Cypriot officials and the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague,” State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said.
“It’s not a matter between the United States and Cyprus so much as it is a matter between Cyprus and the new government in Belgrade, between Cyprus and the international tribunal, and between Cyprus and its international obligations under the United Nations.”
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
