The rise in the cost of living always ‘ignites’ some old stories that we have lived, and that have been killing us for the last 30 years. One story goes that the Commission which conducted the research, and which is chaired by the former commander of the Army of BiH, Sefer Halilović, received about thirty percent of the answers to the inquiries about how much money they spent. The questionnaire was sent to about 4,000 addresses, and a hidden report of the former federal commission was found, which contains evidence of how 1.5 billion marks was stolen through Merhamet. They gave all the evidence they had to SIPA and the Prosecutor’s Office, and now they expect them to continue doing their job.
The hardest, and perhaps the most difficult topic of our postwar period is the financing of parties and the parafinancial mafia, which was created by the systematic outflow of public money into private pockets.
Wealth for Several Generations
Last month, Hasan Čengić, former chief logistician of the BiH Army, president of the Islamic Community Parliament, passed away. A man considered the richest and most influential member of the SDA, behind the curtain. Convicted in the trial of young Muslim intellectuals in 1983, he served five years in prison under the communist system for a senseless verbal offence. After that, in most of the operations in which Alija Izetbegović participated, Čengić was his unavoidable sideman. After the war, when one of the first anti-corruption bodies was formed at the OHR, he was the main target of young lions from the international administration: some of the most trained among them were genuinely surprised at how carefully and secure Čengić ran his business.
’We have nothing tangible against him. He doesn’t sign documents, he doesn’t “play” alone. Wherever we try to break into his business, it is “covered” with either fictitious or valid documentation. A very serious player. – said a high-ranking Anglo American lawyer about him at the time, who, like many before and after him, returned home with unfinished business. The empire grew and expanded, all according to the well-established rules of (semi) illegal and extra-institutional action. “Honestly, I do not believe that he personally made a great profit for himself, but I have no doubt that the wealth he gained is enough for several generations,” his colleague from a school desk in the Sarajevo Madrasa told this chronicler. One can therefore only guess where all that money ended up, but if there is a serious investigation, it will not be difficult to find. On accounts in various banks, from Austria to Arabia.
Paradoxically. The man who in this world had control over all the money (of this part of the world), to the other, in whom he deeply believed, brought nothing. However, that money will certainly be used to build Bosnia and Herzegovina according to his idea. Neo-sultans, whose inhabitants will be – Bosniaks, of course – divided into (only) two groups.
Those Who Have and Those Who do Not
If you do not have a sure clue to follow in the story, follow the movement of money. It will, almost always, lead you in the right direction. This, one of the main postulates of Western journalism, is absolutely applicable in solving the puzzle of post-Dayton, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Gabriel Escobar, the special envoy of the US Secretary of State, stated that Dodik went to Moscow to protect his money. Does this mean that its displacement from its natural habitat can be expected? In Republika Srpska, it is “the easiest”, because the corruption octopus is, in fact, a copy of the government. Everything goes through well-coordinated tycoon schemes in which agreements are “respected” through local connections, and end in one place. In the building of the Government of the Republika Srpska, which is also the seat of the cartel. And the hoop is tightening a bit around this criminal enterprise, with the recent arrests of a criminal group close to Dodik’s son Igor. The dismantling of that criminal organization started through the “Sky” application, which was also used by members of notorious gangs in Serbia. The society that protects the Dodik family is part of the international association of drug traffickers, and that is quite a sufficient motive for the United States to get more seriously involved: everything is different from the perspective of the big ones.
As for the HDZ, and the circle around Čović, it can be said that they “best” imported all parts of the corruption chain: they agreed with the SDA on the House of Peoples, the judiciary and not because of the non-aggression pact for “capitalists”: In the first step, the indictments written in such a way that the government does not pass the idyll of the JCE, an abbreviation that has already been renamed the Theft of Common Money in Herzegovina. The “job” of money laundering is most easily done through bookmakers, mousetraps in which gullible people are caught, oppressed by poverty, and ultimately, the remaining inhabitants of both entities are dumbfounded. It should be checked with some statistics, but it seems that the betting houses are the most frequent activity, and are practiced by a larger number of Bosnians and Herzegovinians. Which means that it is both a highly accumulative and the most profitable activity. Which passes, practically, without taxes. Perfect.
Steal the Money, Shear the Sheep
Furthermore, it is quite possible that the Federal Prime Minister Fadil Novalić will defend himself, outside of jail, in the “Respirators” affair, because in the case of his detention, Jelka Milićević, Minister of Finance, was in office. At the state level, the finances are certainly “covered” by the HDZ, on which the notorious Vjekoslav Bevanda is still sitting. The circle would thus be closed, and the so-called third entity would be constituted through “state” institutions. If not already.
The position of Bakir Izetbegović is the least clear in the whole story: no matter how many concessions he makes to HDZ, it will never happen, because their ultimate goal and only desire is to form a parastate in which their crime will be protected by their laws. However, it turns out that the goal of Bosniak “philantropists” is not much different either: steal your money and shear your sheep, to put it bluntly.
That is why it is important that the three-headed dragon comes down from the historical scene.
To paraphrase the alleged statement of the great Croatian spirit Miroslav Krleža: Save me God, from Serbian heroism and Croatian culture. In this case, it would be the Bosniak philanthropy, Serbian national interests, and Croatian legitimacy. There is nothing behind it but the dark, black, crime of worst kind.
It is difficult to predict, but it seems that something is moving.
What bothers criminals in power the most are international institutions with powers.
That should always be kept in mind.
