Finger on Barac

Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, April 6 1998

Namely, when at the end of February Barac was replaced from the duty of the president of the Dubrovacka Bank Governing Board, the official justification was that that was done to reduce the average age of the Bank leadership. However, Barac unlike the former director of the bankrupt Vukovarska Bank Vlatko Sede didn't quietly disappear from the scene, but instead openly and publicly talked about real causes and reasons for his dismissal. According to him, the reason was his insistence that companies owned by Miroslav Kutle, the person unavoidable in murky privatization deals, pay due obligations of 115 million Kunas. Accounts of Kutle's companies which, according to Barac, all together owe fantastic 944 million Kunas to Dubrovacka Bank were blocked and that enraged the favorite HDZ tycoon and his political mentors; consequently their enforcers in the field removed Barac from the bank.

Perhaps, Barac would have survived that "sin" and breaking of the ranks had he not gone further and revealed the secret model for the takeover of Dubrovacka Bank, and thereby a majority of hotels and other economic resources on the Dubrovnik coast. Namely, five partners, Barac, Miroslav Kutle, vice-governor of Dubrovnik-Neretva county Vinko Brandic, chief of the Dubrovnik secret police Petar Luburic and Tudman's advisor and a political hope of HDZ Ivic Pasalic, signed a secret partnership contract and developed a method for a takeover of the bank without spending a single cent of their own money. The raid of three supposedly unidentified and armed men on the office of notary public Anica Hukelj and theft of the partnership contract which had been kept in her safe indicates that there is at least some truth in Barac's allegations. Barac claims that his announcement that he was going to leave the partnership was the direct cause for his dismissal.

Although Barac has made his allegations 15 days ago, apart from a media vilification campaign, no one touched him until he revealed last week that the fifth partner and the political mentor of the whole dirty deal was supposed to be Tudman's advisor Ivic Pasalic. Only then the police started a criminal investigation against him.

The news about Barac's arrest was aired as the news of the day even before Barac was taken to the investigative magistrate. Thereby, even before the decision of the magistrate about the validity of the accusations, Barac was branded as the most, if not only, responsible party for bringing Dubrovacka Bank to the verge of bankruptcy. Immediately after the arrest Andrija Hebrang and Drago Krpina were explaining that Tudman's party and the authorities have nothing to do with the crimes in Dubrovacka Bank and Dubrovnik which will be appropriately punished, and that tycoons, who had grabbed huge loans from the bank, will repay what they owe even if they had to sell everything they had gained with the blessing of the authorities in the privatization process.

The formula is simple and probably decided on a day before on Tudman's council for strategic decisions: thieves and criminals are Neven Barac and other small fry; tycoons have bitten more than they can digest and will return their loans; The government and the National Bank of Croatia will in the meantime finance the restructuring of the bank to avoid looming bankruptcy, while the political mentors of several years long illegal business practices in Dubrovacka bank will wash their hands and continue with their business deals and careers. For four years Neven Barac has served the authorities and its businessmen protégés and now is supposed to end up as a scapegoat for the sins of the untouchables, who together with him wasted resources of the Dubrovacka Bank and Dubrovnik coast. The only problem is that Barac has already demonstrated that he doesn't want to quietly accept such fate. A threat with time in prison is probably the last attempt to force him to respect the vow of silence.

Translated on 6/15/98