Re: Croatia seeks ex-general for wartime diamond theft
Velika Srbija
"craig" <cr...@volcanomail.com> wrote in message
news:1172719730.4...@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...
>
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070222-0530-croatia-diamonds.html
> Croatia seeks ex-general for wartime diamond theft
>
>
> By Zoran Radosavljevic
> REUTERS
>
> 5:30 a.m. February 22, 2007
>
> ZAGREB - Croatia has issued a warrant for the arrest of a former
> general on suspicion of stealing diamonds worth about $5 million that
> were put up as guarantee of delivery of arms to Croatia in its 1991-95
> independence war.
> An interior ministry statement said on Thursday police had brought
> charges against the suspect, a 44-year old Croatian citizen. It did
> not name him.
>
>
>
> AdvertisementAll local media, including state television, identified
> the man as Vladimir Zagorec, who was a top logistics offical at the
> defense ministry until 2000.
> The Vjesnik daily newspaper said it had contacted Zagorec on a cell
> phone 'at an unknown location'.
>
> 'I've had no information whatsoever about this investigation, but I
> will certainly show up in court,' he told the daily.
>
> The police statement said the suspect had been a deputy defense
> minister and was overseeing the purchase of arms and equipment when he
> 'formally received a quantity of precious stones in his office'.
>
> He deposited the diamonds in a safe but did not enter them in the
> ministry books.
>
> 'We suspect that after he was removed from his post, he illegally took
> the diamonds...estimated at around $5 million,' the statement said.
> 'As he has not been available to police, we issued an arrest warrant,'
> it added.
>
> The Jutarnji List daily said the diamonds were brought to the ministry
> by a foreign arms dealer as his guarantee that he would deliver anti-
> aircraft rocket systems worth $5 million, at a time when Croatia, as
> part of Yugoslavia, was under an international arms embargo.
>
> Getting around a United Nations ban to obtain weapons was a high
> priority after Croatia's secession from Belgrade provoked an armed
> conflict between Zagreb and rebel Croatian Serbs backed by the
> Yugoslav National Army.
>
> The embargo was broken by all sides and a beefed-up Croatian army
> trained by U.S. military experts crushed the Serb rebellion in the
> summer of 1995. A peace treaty ended the wars in Croatia and Bosnia
> later the same year.
>