ISSUE 1958 Wednesday 4 October 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=003571451047366&rtmo=0iJKXsKq&atmo=0iJKXsKq &pg=/et/00/10/4/wyugo104.html
Swiss freeze £57m in 'Milosevic bank accounts' By Fiona Fleck in Berne
Swiss Bankers Association
Protesters bring Serb capital to standstill
SWITZERLAND has frozen £57 million from about 100 secret bank accounts linked to Slobodan Milosevic. It was the first time that the Swiss authorities have taken such measures against a current head of state. The disclosure by Kaspar Villiger, the Swiss finance minister, came in response to a parliamentary question by MP Jean Ziegler. Yesterday Mr Ziegler said banking regulators believed that the accounts were used to purchase arms and supplement the pay of Belgrade's MUP military police force, which is loyal to Milosevic. He said: "This is scandalous as Switzerland is supposed to cracking down on this kind of business." The fate of the funds depend on whether Milosevic stays in power. Mr Ziegler said: "If a new government comes to power, they will demand the funds back." Ottmar Wyss, the head of export sanctions at the Swiss Economics Ministry, said some of the 100 accounts belonged to Yugoslav companies, while others were held by some of 300 Milosevic cronies who appeared on an EU blacklist last year. None was in the president's own name. Western officials believe Milosevic and his entourage have plundered as much as £3.4 billion from Yugoslavia. In recent years, Switzerland has frozen the assets of the former dictators Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti, Mobuto Sesi Seko of Zaire and Sani Abacha of Nigeria. 30 January 2000: Nigerian dictator hid £400m in Swiss banks 24 June 1999: Milosevic assets frozen by Swiss 29 August 1995: Banks to hand back Marcos millions
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