Word: yugoslavic
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...organized labor protest to hit Yugoslavia since it became a Communist country, in 1945. Cowed officials promptly doubled some wages. In a no less startling outburst, the press and even some Communist leaders intensified calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Branko Mikulic, 59. Amid the turmoil, the devalued Yugoslav dinar plunged nearly 25% on world currency markets...
...investigation uncovered Yugoslavia's biggest financial scandal since World War II. Led in part by the country's newly aggressive press, the probe found that Agrokomerc, a giant food-processing firm based in the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, had issued up to $500 million in worthless IOUs to 63 Yugoslav banks and other enterprises. The revelations forced the country's Vice President, Hamdija Pozderac, to resign after the Belgrade newspaper Borba and other publications linked him to the scandal. Agrokomerc Chief Executive Fikret Abdic is in jail awaiting trial. At least six top Communist officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina resigned from...
Pozderac's resignation was swiftly followed by that of Metod Rotar, president of the Ljubljanska Banka, a state-run bank that had bought large quantities of Agrokomerc's promissory notes. Yugoslav officials hinted that still more resignations, and possibly more arrests, were to come. Despite some rumors to the contrary, there was no evidence that the government, which is run by Prime Minister Branko Mikulic, 59, was in danger of falling. But Yugoslav economists estimate that in 1986 alone thousands of enterprises besides Agrokomerc issued unbacked promissory notes and other flimsy financial instruments amounting to more than $9 billion...
...swindle was the power that local Communist chiefs have over regional banks. According to Yugoslav press accounts, Abdic pressured the local branch of Privredna Banka, the Bosnian central bank, into providing guarantees for a steady flow of unsecured promissory notes issued by Agrokomerc. The guarantees made it possible for Agrokomerc to sell the notes for cash to other banks. Abdic plowed the proceeds into his ambitious development plans for the company and lavish community projects for Velika Kladusa, including an Olympic-size swimming pool...
...Tito in 1980, may now have the opportunity to push through needed reforms. On the reformers' list are such measures as liquidation of money-losing state companies, closer supervision of regional banks by central authorities, and curbs on the ability of regional governments to veto national legislation. Moreover, the Yugoslav press played an unusually aggressive role in uncovering the fraud, and optimists hope that the high-level resignations ^ and arrests indicate that the days of official cover-ups are ending...