SOROS - THE "BLACK WIDOW"

AIM Zagreb, 25 December 1996

Will the leading men of Zagreb Soros Foundation really end up in jail, and Croatia (after Serbia) permanently "renounce services" of George Soros, the man who was listed by President Tudjman in his "famous" recent census of "opponents", if not among the verified enemies, at least among wicked "philanthropists" who have involved Croatia in a deceitful and dangerous spider web of very, very dubious intentions?

"The Department for Public Relations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Croatia has stated on 23 December that, due to founded suspicion of illegal business operation of the Foundation of the Open Society Institute, Zagreb - Croatia, criminalistic analysis and control have been initiated". This is how news publicized by national agency HINA on Christmas eve begins, marking the end of a dashing action which could briefly be brought down to: the police is on its toes and promptly executes each and every President's wink.

Further on, it is explained that between 12 and 23 December, "due to founded suspicion of illegal financial operation" in the Foundation Open Society Institute, Zagreb - Croatia, three specialized police forces were engaged: Criminal Police of the Ministry of the interior - Department of Economic Crime, Financial Police, and Foreign Currency Inspectorate of the Ministry of Finance. In the analysis of the documentation from the past year, and after interviewing the employees for several hours and on several occasions (i.e. summoning them for interrogation), they have, viribus unitis, reached the conclusion that "in the Foundation, by order of the responsible persons, double monthly payrolls were made", one in domestic and the other in foreign currency, but that in "payrolls in kunas, only the smaller part of the salaries was presented and taxes and contributions were paid only for that part", while this did not refer to the "black payrolls", which amount to the total of 253,156 dollars for the said period (December 1995 - December 1996). Based on these salaries of the "mercenaries" in dollars, the Foundation - in just the mentioned 12 months - damaged the Croatian state for not at all insignificant 2,667,432.27 kunas of (neither charged not paid) taxes and contributions. What state would allow this? Croatia most certainly would not, at least not when speaking of odious dubious and intriguant persons such as Soros and the like of him (domestic patriotic folk with criminal inclinations are, of course, something completely different).

But, there is more: not only have charges been brought for offences which must result in fattening of the state piggy-bank for the mentioned amount, but criminal charges have also been brought against responsible persons with recongnizable initials in the police statement of S.D. (Srdjan Dvornik) and K.B. (Karmen Basic), because "it was established that there is founded suspicion that a crime of preventing of adducting evidence pursuant Article 180, page 2 was committed, and a crime of forgery of an official document pursuant Article 221 of the Criminal Law of the Republic of Croatia". Translated into layman language, this means that the business director of Croatian Soros Foundation Srdjan Dvornik was accused of an act punishable by imprisonment up to one year, and executive director Karmen Basic for an act for which she may end up in prison for a period between three months and five years!

The report about dedication of the police to the job on Christmas eve and results of it closed the circle which is being drawn for a long time now, and it started getting its final outlines (as expected for the end of the year) in the first decade of this month. Therefore, just two weeks ago (on 7 December, at the 2nd session of the Main Board of the HDZ) President Franjo Tudjman with many words described results of the fatal unvigilance of the HDZ. Its result was among other that - Soros "wolves" cunningly camouflaged into harmless "humanitarian lambs" - were allowed to do "almost whatever they chose to do, so that they got almost undisturbed possibilities to act. They involved 290 different institutions in Croatia in their projects and directly hundreds of people whom they have on their connections, to whom they give scholarships to, or higher or lower amounts of money. They caught in their web or intended to do it by financial support, members of all generations and strata, from secondary school and university students to journalists, university professors and members of the Academy, from all spheres of cultural, economic, scientific, health, jurisprudent or publishing life". Having admitted that in the past years "Soros Foundation has given for these purposes about 15 million dollars", the President, nevertheless, determined that such activity "is not compatible with diplomatic codex and state sovereignty" and that it was evident that real purpose of spending the mentioned large amount of money lay in "the task to change ownership structure by means of donations in technical and computer equipment. They (people from Soros) even openly say that it is not enough for them that they are by means of different scholarships for America, the BBC and similar, that they are issuing public and internal competitions, training journalists and others, but that it is necessary to equip them financially, technically, etc." As especially "tenderly looked after" media, he underlined Feral Tribune and Radio 101, but not forgetting to add Arkzin, Vijenac, Novi list, Bumerang, Otok Ivanic, Dan, Metro, Start nove generacije, Radio Baranja, Radio Labin..., testifying that competent services have thoroughly done the job they were entrusted with of gathering information for the President's anathema.

Reactions from the Open Society were expected: consequences and more than that. On 9 December, at a special press conference, the Management Board rejected the gravest accusations, in other words, that the Foundation operates in contrivance with foreign interests, i.e., as President Tudjman said that by efforts to get hold of "all spheres of life", especially media and culture, "it is creating a situation for change of current authorities and circumstances in Croatia". On the contrary, heads of the Open Society claimed, all their activities were founded on "implementation of values registered in the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, in programs of almost all parties in Croatia, and in international documents which are obligatory for Croatia". But, they did not conceal certain fear roused by negative vibrations from Tudjman's speech. Nevertheless, they said: "we did not understand the speech of the President of HDZ as the announcement of a ban of the Open Society Institute", but as a "warning to members of the party, voters, and us", and also as "criticism which should be respected and which can be further discussed". Ayrieh Neier, Director of the Open Society Foundation, speaking for the Voice of America, with every diplomatic courtesy, nevertheless, very decisively rejected all accusations from the speech of President Tudjman, proclaiming the one according to which one of the objectives of the Foundation was restoration of Yugoslavia - "simply nonsensical".

But, as a precaution, the Foundation transferred the greatest part of the money (about 600,000 dollars) from its account in Zagreb to a non-resident account in Slovenia, which was, as it soon proved, carefully followed and taken as a sign for sounding the alarm. When business director Srdjan Dvornik, together with the chief accountant, on 12 December, was caught at the border crossing in Bregana, his car was carefully searched, the 60 thousand dollars found in a plastic bag confiscated, minutes about it made, and he was taken to the police station for 20-hour long questioning.

In the ten days which followed, as implied by the quoted statement, police officers of various types were very busy seeking and searching people and documents. The epilogue for the time being are criminal charges. The rest of the intriguing story - reactions to this unpleasant gesture - will soon be known (on 7 January at the latest when the employees of the Open Society Institute in Croatia will return from a vacation). But, even without the (expected forthcoming) statement of both the heads of the Soros Foundation in Croatia, but probably that of George Soros himself concerning the current "report", many things have remained opened: apart from the wicked circumstances which the two Croatian intellectuals found themselves in, threatened by jail, there is the assessment of actual proportions of HDZ policy. All things considered, fear is not unfounded that this paranoid syndrome will blossom into real paranoia.

MERI STAJDUHAR