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Post by radovic on Jun 6, 2009 20:31:00 GMT -5
I tihnk the amount milo has mentioned is too low.
Djukanovic family owns 185 million Dollars Author: E. B. | 05.06.2009 - 09:20 Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic rules the country which during his power from 1994 to 2002 was ‘a paradise for illegal trade and a shelter for criminals’. This is written in the report made by Italian Service for fight against mafia, DIA, parts of which have been publicized in the research of the International consortium of research journalists. The Research center of the Independent association of journalists of Serbia (NUNS) contributed to that report.
The journalists reveal that Milo Djukanovic owns real estate and companies worth 14.7 million Dollars at least. His brother Aleksandar owns 167 millions and sister Ana about 3.5 million Dollars. ‘Together with his close associates Djukanovic came in possession of huge sum of illegally earned money which is deposited in the banks in Switzerland, Monte Carlo and Cyprus’, the DIA report reads. According to charges raised by the Italian prosecution in Bari, Djukanovic took part in smuggling together with Italian cartels Camora of Naples and Sacra Corona Unita of Puglia region in the south of Italy. On May 21 the court in Bari rejected charges against Djukanovic for cigarette smuggling because Djukanovic is protected by the immunity.
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Post by radovic on Jun 6, 2009 20:55:15 GMT -5
Old article
Bulatovic's and Djukanovic's Personal Property
From "Enthusiasm" to Wealth AIM Podgorica, 28 October, 1997
After the two vehement tv duels of Montenegrin presidential candidates, Momir Bulatovic and Milo Djukanovic, it was heard from the Democratic Alternative, a non-parliamentary party in Serbia, that both "Bulatovic and Djukanovic should be immediately arrested". The Alternative concluded that in a democratic country such as, for example, the USA, after the candidates had washed such an enormous amount of dirty laundry in public, state attorney would immediately issue a warrnat for their arrest and instigate an investigation. In Montenegro, of course, this did not happen. Bulatovic and Djukanovic ran in the second round of elections and the latter celebrated a victory. Although previously "informed" from rumours about the property and privileges of the two candidates, the public acquired corroboration for much of the gossip from their public confrontation. The candidates have not only confirmed what had been whispered and guessed before, but even added new elements to their dossiers.
When he was coming to power in the end of the eighties, Bulatovic humbly declared that he would never accept a professional engagement in politics, but that he would undertake only a job which demands voluntary work! At the time he bragged that he was driving a 12-year old "Lada", while his wife's account in the bank was constantly in the red. It is true that at the time Bulatovic owned practically nothing. With his wife and two children he lived in a two-room apartment. He had the small income of a university assistant professor, and his wife that of a government employee. Nowadays, however, family Bulatovic lives in one of the villas of 180 square metres, built on an exclusive location in Podgorica for high officials, and both he and his wife drive luxurious cars. Besides, Bulatovic has built a weekend cottage in the mountain resort Verusa near Podgorica, which is, for the sake of covering up tracks, registered in his father's name. What is the share owned by Bulatovic in some of the enterprises of his friends and relatives is still a secret.
However, that state and political affairs have not prevented him from taking care of "existential" problems of his near and far relations, is no secret whatsoever. Bulatovic's brother Dragan used to be a legal assistant of a Podgorica agricultural complex, where he worked on purchasing of fertilizers which was later the reason for a big scandal because of embezzlement. Although the public was at the time pointing its finger at Dragan Bulatovic, the authorities decided to sacrifice the then minister of agriculture Branko Abramovic, who was arrested, but then, after a long trial, released as completely innocent. In the meantime, the main culprit, Dragan Bulatovic, thanks to the recommendation of his brother, President of the Republic, became the director of the employment bureau, which after adoption of the Law on Transformation of the economy became the owner of the stock and value of one third of Montenegrin state enterprises. It was possible to hear in the tv duel that Dragan Bulatovic, from that post and under dubious circumstances, accommodated privately-owned enterprises belonging to his relatives with loans, at a very low interest rate. It turned out that the bureau headed by the President's brother granted almost two million-worth of loans, and out of that amount Dragan Bulatovic supported the business enterprise of his brother-in-law, Dragan Jovanovic, with 150 thousand German marks.
Between two rounds of presidential elections, Djukanovic's police arrested Bulatovic's best man, Miodrag Davidovic alias Daka, main "exporter" of Montenegrin cigarettes to Republica Srpska. The best man was indicted for tax evasion amounting to about 10 million marks, since it turned out that he sold most of the tobacco on the domestic market, while "export" ro Republica Srpska was just a pretext for exemption from paying taxes. Two days before the second round of voting, Bulatovic abused his legal right to grant amnesty and released his best man from jail and further investigation.
The other best man of Momir Bulatovic - magnate of Montenegrin publishing business, Janko Brajkovic - is even more powerful. Thanks to his connection with the President of the Republic, he annually prints 200 titles which is unthinkable even in much larger and richer countries than Montenegro. The greatest number of these publications is then, again thanks to the best man, bought by state-owned firms and institutions which simply race which will sooner and better curry favour with the President's best man. The climax of this connection was reached recently by printing of a special monograph titled Montenegro - The Ecological State, in which as the author appears no other but Momir Bulatovic himself, although in this luxurious edition of 200 pages, his is only the introductory text. How the book was "sold" and what were the fees paid for it can only be suspected based on the example of the Budva Municipal Assembly, the chairman of which allocated almost 80 thousand German marks from the municipal budget for purchasing of the monograph!
The third best man of Momir Bulatovic, Nebojsa Zekovic, is behind bars for alsmot six months. A couple of years ago he got as far as the post of minister of trade, and then, after he had been relieved of duty, became an omnipotent businessman who with one hand tied behind his back bought firms and business premises in his native Herceg Novi. He was arrested on indictment that he had caused damage to the state and various economic subjects of two million and 80 thousand dinars (700 thousand German marks).
Bulatovic's wife was not satisfied with the job of an ordinary advisor in the ministry of education. A couple of years ago, her husband found her the attractive job of the director of the Automobile Association of Montenegro (AMS), where Nada Bulatovic soon after developed a big business soon after. Numerous firms started circulating capital though the AMS, while at the same time the AMS acquired a monopoly in selling salt and import of bitumen. It leaked from official sources that through these business deals, Nada Bulatovic caused about 300 thousand marks worth of damage to the state.
Thanks to Momir, all the other Bulatovics quickly advanced. For instance, his cousin Nastadin Bulatovic, with a secondary school diploma and reputation of a minor journalist who had worked for years in Podgorica municipal paper Polis, was nominated assistant director general of state Radio-Television. Soon after the nomination he got a comfortable apartment. Brother of the President's wife Nada was appointed head of the President's team in charge of Prevlaka, and her father, although retired, became a member of the management board of Podgorica enterprise Drvoimpeks.
The dossier of the other presidential candidate and new head of the Miontenegrin state, Milo Djukanovic, is not so substantial nor voluminous, but it is suspected to be worth more than Bulatovic's.
The newly-elected president of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, is a veteran in politics although he is only 35 years old. He appeared on the public scene as cadre of Stipe Suvar, and member of the presidency of the socialistic youth. On the eve of the "anti-bureaucratic" revolution and dramatic developments which had been an overture to the bloody dismemberment of the country, he became a member of the central committee of Yugoslav communists. Because of unscrupulous squaring of accounts with his opponents he acquired the nickname "razor" at the post. Like Bulatovic, he also vowed that when he got to power he would sell the motor pool and mansions of nepotistic communist leadership. But, very soon after taking over power in Montenegro, along with his fellow combatants, from worn out sweaters and cheap jackets he jumped into Armani's suits and expensive limousines.
Djukanovic, however, had sufficient style and wisdom to eliminate his name from all possible evidence. His name is not mentioned anywhere, not even as the owner of a bank account, or any firm or real estate. According to papers he owns only an apartment identical to that of Bulatovic's and nothing else. That is why Djukanovic's brother Aco and brother-in-law Mesa were in the line of fire of his opponent Bulatovic and Belgrade regime press, and not the Prime Minister himself.
The mentioned two men are private businessmen and Bulatovic accuses them that they had acquired great wealth thanks to the sponsorship of prime minister Djukanovic. And he is certainly right. Djukanovic's brother Aco owns a house on the sea-coast in Bijela, from where he controlled during all these years (skimmer) trade of cigarettes with Italy. It is evaluated that this had brought him enormous wealth, and in the tv duel Bulatovic said that Aco owned a number of business premises and a couple of enterprises.
Djukanovic's brother-in-law, Mesa Kolarevic, is also several hundred thousand marks worth, but among the tangible evidence, Bulatovic pulled out from the file a house of 800 square metres which he is, together with a friend, having constructed for him on an exclusive location in Podgorica. His wife Ana, sister of prime minister Djukanovic worked in the beginning of the nineties in the branch office of Belgrade Inter-Export, the director of which is Slobodan Milosevic's brother Boro. When relations between Milosevic and Djukanovic became strained, Ana moved to the Podgorica district court, to the post of a judge.
Djukanovic's wife Lidija, although like Nada Bulatovic, she found employment in the automobile business, was not as ambitious and was content with the post of secretary for marketing. The firm ASI, once founded by AMS and privatized in the meantime, was subject to criticism of Bulatovic's headquarters because of enormous profit of over 100 million marks in 1996 which was linked to Djukanovic and his head of secret police Maras, who is claimed to be the nominal owner of the firm.
A certain number of private businessmen who have acquired enormous wealth overnight is also linked to the name of Milo Djukanovic. The example of Dusan Ban is a good illustration, whose wife is a school friend of priime minister Djukanovic. In just three years, from a seller of costume jewellery in Podgorica, Ban has become the owner of an enviable motor pool and a house downtown, which is over half a million marks worth.
This is an outline for the portrait of the two presidential candidates. Montenegro chose between these two. Cynics say that it is better this way than to elect some "pauper" from the opposition and then be forced to wait for another decade until he provides for all his relatives and friends. Djukanovic and Bulatovic have obviously taken care of such problems. Ordinary people are waiting their turn to be provided for.
Veseljko Koprivica
AIM Podgorica
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Post by radovic on Jun 8, 2009 21:29:06 GMT -5
ArticlesResourcesArchivesGlossaryThe TeamMultimedia Djukanovic’s Montenegro a Family Business As EU Membership Looms, So Do Troubling Questions By Miranda Patrucic, Mirsad Brkic, Svjetlana Celic | June 01, 2009 Montenegrins may have been surprised late last year to learn that the global financial crisis had arrived in their tiny Balkan country. Newspapers, the Internet, and even a James Bond film painted Montenegro as the Monte Carlo of Eastern Europe. The nation’s mountainous, tree-lined coast, medieval walled cities, and stone ruins set the scene for a boom in luxury hotels and private villas.
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In December, the administration of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic announced that Montenegro would bail out First Bank (Prva banka), one of the country’s largest financial institutions and a major investor in the Montenegrin boom. First Bank is majority owned by Djukanovic, two siblings, and a close friend.
Members of local watchdog groups, opposition parties, and journalists say this is just another example of the government’s interests aligning with the financial interests of the first family. They say their small country — fewer than 700,000 people in less space than the U.S. state of Connecticut — seems at times like the private corporation of the prime minister and his family. With Djukanovic’s political party handily winning elections at the end of March, the prime minister is expected to remain in power for another two years.
Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic oversaw a decade-long cigarette smuggling racket, according to Italian investigators. (Reprinted with permission from Vijesti)“Montenegro is a lawless country,” charges Milka Tadic, editor of the country’s influential Monitor magazine. “And if you are part of the government or close to its circles you can do whatever you want.”
Djukanovic has amassed a level of wealth that is hard to explain given his meager government salary over the years. Some believe his wealth stems from his days in the tobacco smuggling business. Italian prosecutors place the prime minister at the center of a conspiracy by Montenegrin officials and the Italian Mafia that allegedly smuggled huge quantities of cigarettes for about 10 years starting in the 1990s, although prosecutors did not specifically allege that Djukanovic profited personally from smuggling.
Allegations of corruption are attracting interest outside Montenegro these days, as the country is making a bid to join the European Union. Although the EU is satisfied Montenegro is making progress, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a Montenegrin television station in December that corruption and organized crime are the primary obstacles to the country joining the EU.
Djukanovic declined to comment for this story, and has said little beyond cursory denials when various allegations of wrongdoing have surfaced over the years. Instead he has vigorously confronted his accusers in court, filing and winning defamation lawsuits against media in his homeland, Serbia, and Croatia. Last year he won a €20,000 judgment against Vijesti, the country’s largest independent newspaper, and its publisher Zeljko Ivanovic, who was badly beaten and had suggested that Djukanovic and his family were behind the attack. When the Croatian weekly Nacional published an unflattering article in 2001, Djukanovic countered by suing not only that publication, but also media outlets that reprinted the story, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Family of Millionaires In 1991, on the day he turned 29, Milo Djukanovic came to power, the youngest prime minister in Europe. Shortly after, Yugoslavia split apart in war. Djukanovic was one of a trio of Montenegrin leaders at the time, led by then-President Momir Bulatoviæ, a close ally of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic. In 1991 and 1992, Montenegro drew international outrage for shelling Dubrovnik — a UNESCO heritage site — in neighboring Croatia. Ethnically targeted Bosnian Muslims who sought refuge in Montenegro were deported back into Bosnian Serb-held areas, a fact Montenegro has acknowledged in recent years by awarding compensation to survivors. In 1992, for example, some 80 Bosnians were sent back; some of them were kept in prison camps, but most were later executed. Opposition parties unsuccessfully called for an investigation into whether Djukanovic should be tried for war crimes.
Djukanovic dominated political life in Montenegro. Except for 16 months he spent in Parliament, he has served continuously since 1991 as prime minister or president. As president, he became the darling of the West when he turned his back on Milosevic. After Milosevic’s 2000 defeat in Serbia, Djukanovic began a national push for independence from Serbia. His efforts succeeded in 2006.
During the war years, Montenegro relied on cigarette smuggling revenue to keep the country afloat. Bulatoviæ and Djukanovic have admitted that smuggling helped fill government coffers, but maintain that they never personally benefited from the trade, which they say complied with Montenegrin laws.
Whatever the source of his wealth, Milo Djukanovic today is a rich man. Reporters for the International Consortium of Investigative Reporters (ICIJ) found that he owns or controls properties and company shares worth at least US$14.7 million. That stands in contrast to Djukanovic’s government salary, which has never topped $1,700 per month. Djukanovic’s income declaration forms, dating back to 2005, do not list earnings from other sources. His wife Lidija earns a salary slightly higher than his, according to the most recent filing.
Milo Djukanovic’s brother Aleksandar, known as Aco, amassed a fortune of as much as $167 million. (Reprinted with permission from Vijesti)Other members of the Djukanovic family also fare well financially. Djukanovic’s brother Aleksandar (known as “Aco”), a concert promoter before the Balkans war, has accumulated at least $167 million, according to an ICIJ estimate of his assets. His sister Ana, a high-profile lawyer, has more than $3.5 million worth of stocks and real estate. And the prime minister’s son Blazo, a university student, earns about $15,000 monthly leasing an office that was a gift from his uncle.
“What is obvious is that Mr. Djukanovic and a number of government officials amassed enormous riches during the 1990s, and now with that money they are unabashedly buying Montenegrin companies,” said Alexander Damjonovic, a member of Parliament for the opposition Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro (SNP). “They are investing money in the capital markets. They are buying real estate.”
How the family accumulated its wealth is not clear. Critics say the Djukanovics made a series of lucrative business deals, and that the prime minister has been involved in repeated conflicts of interests. The privatization of a bank in his hometown of Niksic is the prime example, they say, of how Djukanovic’s family makes these business deals bear fruit.
The Niksic Bank Goes Private In 2006, the Niksic Bank was slated for privatization, and Djukanovic was deeply involved. As prime minister he established a council to oversee the transfer of public companies into private hands, and he appointed himself president of that council. The council set up odd rules for the bank privatization by which a 30 percent stake in the bank would be sold on the Montenegrin stock exchange. The shares, held by the Republic of Montenegro and two government agencies, had to be sold to one bidder, the rules stated, and they set a minimum acceptable price, about $3 million, for the package. Only one bid came in. It was from Monte Nova, a company owned by Djukanovic’s brother Aco.
Monte Nova, which already owned 12 percent of the bank, didn’t actually pay even the minimum asking price. It covered about half of its bid in cash and the rest in bonds of old foreign exchange funds, a form of payment that the council’s unusual rules for the bank deal allowed. The bonds could be bought at the time for a fraction of their face value.
After the purchase, the name was changed to First Bank and its headquarters were moved to the capital, Podgorica. Monte Nova appointed four of the seven members of the board, effectively taking control of the bank. A corporate disclosure filed with the stock exchange showed that over the next two years, the board approved a series of recapitalizations, issuing additional stock that was sold again at a minimal price of $187 per share (the market price ranged between $250 and $1500). Djukanovic, through his company Capital Invest, bought nearly seven percent of the low-priced shares with a $2 million loan from the London office of Piraeus Bank of Greece. Djukanovic used the stock that he was buying as collateral. Ana Kolarevic, Djukanovic’s sister, bought what is now a 0.5 percent share of the bank.
Critics say the privatization of First Bank, where Djukanovic, two siblings, and a close friend own shares, is a prime example of the prime minister’s conflicts of interest. (Reprinted with permission from Vijesti)Aco Djukanovic’s shares jumped 100-fold in value and by September 2008 were worth more than $141 million. The prime minister’s investment had grown to nearly $8.7 million by then, while sister Kolarevic’s shares increased to about $1.6 million. (Their current value may be different, but no shares have publicly traded since then.)
Within one year of the purchase of his first shares, Djukanovic repaid the loan with stock that was worth four times what he paid for it.
Immediately after the Djukanovic family invested in the bank, the amount of assets deposited there by governmental bodies skyrocketed. At the end of 2006, about the time Monte Nova took over the board, the Montenegrin government and agencies, various municipalities, and state companies had $23 million in the bank, according to bank audits. By the end of 2007, government deposits totaled $127 million. Overall deposits soared from more than $104 million in 2006 to more than $579 million in 2007, making it one of Montenegro’s most important banks overnight.
Djukanovic’s government announced in December that due to the international financial crisis, the government would bail out the family’s bank. First Bank showed a profit of $5.8 million for the nine months ending September 2008, but end of the year figures just three months later revealed a loss of $35 million. Djukanovic’s government helped with a loan of $64.7 million and by paying off some $19 million in loans the bank had given to state companies or companies working on state projects. By March, the bank had paid back $14.5 million of the loan.
Auditors found that while under the family’s control, the bank regularly loaned to insiders and connected parties. For example, in 2007, Aco Djukanovic borrowed more than $2 million and Milo Djukanovic’s business partner, Vuk Rajkoviæ, borrowed $856,500. Stanko Subotic, a friend of Djukanovic who is under indictment in Serbia on charges of tobacco smuggling, took out a loan from the bank to buy nearly $33 million of land on exclusive St. Nikola Island, a resort property so stunning it is known as “Hawaii.” He never repaid the loans and the bank is liquidating his properties.
Aco Djukanovic and his sister Ana Kolarevic declined to comment. “I would gladly talk about everything else, but not about First Bank,” said Kolarevic. “I’m a small stakeholder, with a very, very small percentage. … I’m not authorized to talk about it.”
Global Montenegro, a tourism firm co-founded by Milo Djukanovic, owns land in Budva, one of the country’s rapidly developing coastal towns. (Courtesy of Bratislav Tabaš)Ranka Carapic, Montenegro’s chief state prosecutor, issued a statement in January saying that the Central Bank suspected that First Bank’s management had “taken illegal actions” that had endangered depositors’ accounts. Prosecutors and Central Bank officials refused to provide ICIJ with details about the alleged irregularities. Meanwhile, press accounts quoted depositors who complained that the bank took three weeks to honor wire requests. The case is being investigated by the Montenegrin Special Department for Combating Organized Crime.
The Network for Affirmation of the NGO Sector (MANS), a Montenegrin nonprofit watchdog group, complained to the state Commission for Determining Conflict of Interest in 2006, asking it to suspend Djukanovic and several other ministers from membership in the privatization council. MANS argued that the Montenegrin Constitution prohibits government officials from performing other duties. The commission, appointed by the assembly controlled by Djukanovic’s party, disagreed, finding that the board was a government body and Djukanovic could serve in any governmental function he wanted.
Conflicts of Interest? In the fall of 2006 Djukanovic withdrew from the top level of government in favor of serving as a member of Parliament. Montenegro’s independence, he said, represented the achievement of his major political goal and it was time to dedicate himself to business.
Over the next two years, he opened five companies. Three are still active, including Capital Invest, a consulting and management firm that owns his shares in First Bank. He co-founded and owns one-quarter interest in a firm that operates the University of Donja Gorica, a four-acre, 4,500-student private institution in Podgorica that his son Blazo attends. He also co-founded Global Montenegro, a tourism consulting and management firm, which owns acreage along the coast in the tourist town of Budva, according to Montenegrin corporate registration records.
The wealthiest members of the Djukanovic family are the prime minister’s brother and sister. According to Montenegrin property records, Aco Djukanovic or his firms own at least 22 business properties and four apartments, several in downtown Podgorica and, along the coast, and an acre in tourist haven Herceg Novi. Montenegrin corporate registration records show he closed Monte Nova but still co-owns two construction companies, Urbis Nova and Invest Nova, which are involved in coastal real estate development.
Aco Djukanovic has a knack for making money. In 2005, he bought shares of the Montenegrin Commercial Bank for more than $1.7 million at about $636 per share, according to bank records. He sold them the next year to OTP Bank of Hungary, which bought out all shareholders for a premium of about $3,767 per share — leaving Aco a six-fold return on his investment.
Djukanovic’s sister, Ana Kolarevic, owns four apartments in downtown Podgorica. A former supreme court justice appointed during Djukanovic’s tenure, Kolarevic specializes in business law. She owns a legal firm and Edu Cons, a consulting and management company. Her 25-year-old son Edin is also an entrepreneur who owns and operates three design, consulting, and building firms.
Ana Kolarevic, Djukanovic’s sister, owns a law firm whose clients include Russian businessmen investing in Montenegro’s teeming coastal real estate. (Reprinted with permission from Vijesti)The first family’s heavy investment in tourism and coastal development is another conflict of interest for Djukanovic, say local critics, given the government’s strong backing of development. Property on the Montenegrin shoreline has risen in value dramatically over the past four years before pulling back this year, and the government has stated a desire to turn Montenegro into an upscale resort area. A large part of the growth has been due to an influx of capital from Russian businessmen, some of them clients of the prime minister’s sister.
In July 2008, Parliament, controlled by Djukanovic’s party, passed a law declaring five-star hotels to be in the national interest of Montenegro. The law allows these private companies to confiscate surrounding land using eminent domain. The new law also loosens the rules for large developments and can even force small landowners to give up land to neighbors with bigger lots and houses. At the same time, Montenegro has embarked on an international, state-funded advertising campaign to lure upscale tourists to the country.
The Djukanovic government has also moved to make the prime minister the president of the board of the Montenegrin Investment Promotion Agency. The position allows him to control and negotiate foreign investment deals. Djukanovic has traveled extensively to Russia and last year to Dubai looking for investment along Montenegro’s coastline.
In 2006, MANS, the watchdog group, again complained about the prime minister, arguing to the Constitutional Court that Djukanovic’s seat on the investment board was a conflict of interest. This time MANS won, with the court ruling it unconstitutional for the prime minister to sit on the board of an independent public institution. But such matters are never that simple in Montenegro. Another body, the Djukanovic-friendly Commission for Determining Conflicts of Interest, ruled that the prime minister’s membership was not a conflict because he receives no pay.
Djukanovic has so far ignored the constitutional court’s decision and still holds his position. In 2008 when Djukanovic, prompted by the sudden illness of his successor, moved back into the top level of government, he promised to distance himself from his private enterprises. “As long as I am in a state function I don’t want to do business,” Djukanovic was quoted as saying in Vijesti, the Montenegrin daily. But the prime minister has not acted quickly on that promise. Records show that Djukanovic recently re-registered three of his firms, which will keep them operating through at least 2010.
Miranda Patrucic, Mirsad Brkic, and Svjetlana Celic are reporters with the Center for Investigative Reporting of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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