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BELGRADE, Oct 28, 1999 -- A senior Yugoslav official on Wednesday accused U.S. diplomats, the Serbian opposition and the West-leaning premier of Bosnia's Serb entity of plotting a "monetary coup" against Yugoslavia.
"Police today arrested eight people and confiscated five to six million forged Yugoslav dinars smuggled from Hungary," said Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic.
"The aim is to provoke a monetary coup in Yugoslavia," he told a news conference, listing the names of those he said were behind the attempt.
Matic singled out former U.S. Balkans envoy Robert Gelbard, his successor James Dobbins, Montenegrin presidential adviser Steve Hanke, Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, the G-17 group of independent Yugoslav economists and the Alliance for Change opposition grouping in Serbia.
"This is a campaign of special war, an extended aggression against Yugoslavia ... It's an interference with internal affairs," Matic said. "It aims at weakening the citizens' trust in their own currency, at destabilisation of the country."
Matic Accuses Bosnian Serb Premier
Yugoslavia has been under international sanctions since 1992 for its role in Balkan wars and its relations with the West hit rock-bottom last spring over the conflict in Kosovo, halted only by NATO air strikes. The UN war crimes tribunal has indicted President Slobodan Milosevic and several top aides.
At Wednesday's news conference, each reporter was given a forged 100 dinar note.
"Police are continuing the investigation into the latest forgery and smuggling, but the facts available so far clearly show the money was forged professionally, it wasn't home made," Matic said.
He said police had earlier confiscated forged dinar notes smuggled from Bulgaria, and more recently 500,000 dinars smuggled into Yugoslavia from Bosnia's Serb republic (Republika Srpska.
"Officials from Republika Srpska are participating in those attempts to smuggle forged money to Yugoslavia and Dodik is a coordinator," Matic said.
Dodik, who came to power in early 1998 after the ouster of nationalist hard-liners, has often criticized Milosevic, saying Balkan stability is only possible if he relinquishes power.
The Yugoslav currency suffered a sharp drop on the black market earlier this month, falling to 18.5-19.0 to the German mark compared with an official rate of six. It has since recovered to 16.0-17.0.
The National Bank of Yugoslavia has blamed export-import firms and commercial banks for the dinar's fall.
Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic last week put the blame on Montenegro, Serbia's pro-Western partner in the two-republic federation, and on Bosnia's Serb republic.