<nettime> Re: Fikret Abdic

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

I disagree with the allegation that he did not cook the books. 
Actually, within the parameters of former Yugoslav pseudo-
communist economy, he was engaging in the same type of 
business as the CEO-s of Enron, Adelphia, Kmart, Worldcom, 
Tyco, Global Crossing, Qwest and other big US corporate names 
whom we saw fail later: he was overstating the value of his 
company (Agrokomerc) to potential investors and lenders, taking 
their money and giving them worthless paper in return (we did not 
have stocks and shares, but we did have some sort of bonds) and 
he did that with their probable aquiescence. I forgot exact figures, 
but he "defrauded" Slovenian bank 'Ljubljanska Banka' for a 
substantial sum. 

It is true, however, that his fall from grace was precipitated by the 
political change in former Yugoslavia. Pozderac family politically 
protected Abdic's fraud in exchange for Abdic's support to their 
political power. Ljubljanska Banka gave money to Agrokomerc 
knowing that they would never see that money again, because it 
was in the interest of Slovenia to prop up Bosnian capacities, 
whether in reality or just on paper. Abdic built a strong Bosnian 
company - the fact that he did so fraudulently, meant nothing to 
local political leaders like Pozderac - quite on the contrary. 

Milosevic, however, who did and protected others who did similar 
things like Abdic in Serbia, found it useful to destroy Agrokomerc 
for three reasons: first, by destroying Pozderac's power base, he 
removed the only strong political figure from Bosnia still from the 
Tito's era on the federal scene, and with this weakened Bosnia 
politically (the other one - Bjedic - died in a suspicious plane 
crash); second, by calling Abdic's bluff, and making Agrokomerc 
"junk-bonds" affair public, Milosevic did not only hurt Agrokomerc, 
but also Ljubljanska Banka, which had to admit publicly huge 
losses (by then carefully hidden) and was nearly forced into 
bankruptcy by Agrokomerc collapse, and Ljubljanska Banka was 
the closest competitor to Beobanka (formerly chaired by Milosevic) 
on former Yugoslav banking services market, and also staple of 
Slovenian economy - therefore Milosevic also destabilized Slovenia 
by smearing Abdic; and third, with Abdic removed, Agrokomerc 
ceased operation, depraving Bosnia of its own food processing 
plant, and making it more heavily dependent on Croatia and Serbia 
for food. It is like those big corporations here that gave a lot of 
money to Democrats and now file for Chapter 11 under the 
Republican administration.

It is therefore very strange that Abdic co-operated with Republika 
Srpska during the war. It seems illogical. Abdic was actually 
supposed to replace Izetbegovic, which never happened and there 
was some ill blood between him and the SDA. But in reality his 
Velika Kladusa enclave (area big like Lichtenstein) was completely 
surrounded by Serbian forces, and he traded its independence for 
co-operation with Republika Srpska (which was interested in 
keeping Bihac, because of its military potential). As a hedge, 
Abdica had excellent relations with Croatian government. 
Agrokomerc sold its products in Croatia, Abdic kept an apartment 
and an office in Rijeka, etc. Finally, when Izetbegovic's troups 
(balkansnet.org/bihac.html) took over the enclave, Abdic and his 
followers went in exile in Croatia. The followers were ultimately 
stranded on the road and eventually returned to Bosnia, where 
Izetbegovic granted them amnesty, but Abdic was given protection 
of Croatia. It is unclear to me why would Croatia want him in prison 
NOW.

I would actually like to see Abdic testify in The Hague - because 
little is known about Milosevic's criminal deeds BEFORE 1991, 
when he was destabilizing the country and destroying political 
leadership of other republics and provinces (Bosnia, Macedonia, 
Montenegro, Vojvodina, Kosovo) in order to obtain majority in 
Yugoslav presidency...


ivo

Date sent:      	Thu, 1 Aug 2002 00:36:22 -0400
Send reply to:  	International Justice Watch Discussion List
             	<JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
From:           	Miroslav Visic <visic@PIPELINE.COM>
Organization:   	New World Disorder
Subject:        	Fikret Abdic
To:             	JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

I meant to post this:

> Andras Riedlmayer wrote:
>
> > Fikret Abdic, a.k.a. Babo ("Daddy"), had already served time in jail
(for
> > fraud) before he became the wartime leader of a self-declared
autonomous
> > mini-state in northwestern Bosnia.
>


 It was not fraud. His "guilt" was that he was issuing his company's
debt, just
 like any American company does. Unlike typical American CEO, he however
didn't
 cook the books. The only reason he was in jail was political fall of
his
 mentor Hamdija Pozderac, who was Vice President of Yugoslavia in late
1980s.
 Mr. Pozderac was a victim of Milosevic's smear campaign with an
ultimate goal
 to destabilize Bosnia.

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