Yugoslavia�s external debt is in excess of $14 billion of which $5 billion are owed to the Paris Club (largely the governments of NATO countries) and $3 billion to the London Club. The latter is a syndicate of private banks, which includes some 400 creditor institutions. The largest part of Yugoslavia�s debt, however, is held by some 16 (mainly) American and European banks which are members of an International Coordinating Committee (ICC) headed by America�s Citigroup and Germany�s giant WestDeutsche Landesbank.

The ICC ultimately calls the shots regarding debt negotiations, privatization and macro-economic therapy. In turn, the IMF acting on behalf of both official and commercial creditors has called for �a restructuring of FRY�s external debt on appropriate terms� underscoring the fact that fresh money can only be approved �following the regularization of arrears.� Belgrade would be obliged to recognize these past debts as a condition for the negotiation of fresh loans as well as settle pending succession issues regarding the division of the external debt of the FRY amongst the �successor republics.�

While token �reconstruction� loans are envisaged, vast amounts of money and resources will be taken out of Yugoslavia. A $208 million �bridge loan� granted by Switzerland and Norway (January 2001) was used to reimburse the IMF In turn, the IMF had granted $151 million to Belgrade in the form of a so-called �post-conflict assistance� loan. But this �aid� was tagged to reimburse Switzerland and Norway, which had coughed up the money to settle IMF arrears in the first place.

Of the IMF loan of $151 million mentioned in the preceding paragraph for �emergency post-conflict assistance,� the Belgrade authorities will draw $130 million to repay the bridge loans received from Switzerland and Norway. What remains after the IMF has �reimbursed itself� is a meager influx of $21 million. And broadly the same fictitious money arrangement has been put in place by the World Bank, which has ordered that $1.7 billion in arrears �be cleared� before the granting of fresh loans.

More generally, the �reconstruction� money will line the pockets of international creditors and multinational corporations (with trinkets for DOS cronies) while putting the entire Yugoslav economy on the auction block. The meagre proceeds of forced privatization - in which only foreign �investors� will be allowed to bid - will then

be used to pay back the creditors, who happen to be the same people who are buying up Yugoslav assets.

Fictitious reconstruction money, however, is only granted on condition Yugoslavia implements economic �shock therapy.� Under the disguise of �economic normalization,� the World Bank and the Londonbased European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have been given the mandate to dismantle through bankruptcy and forced privatization what has not yet been destroyed by the bombers.

In this process, political terror and �economic terror� go hand in hand. The evidence amply confirms that the IMF-World Bank�s lethal economic reforms imposed in more than 150 developing countries have led to the impoverishment of millions of people. In a cruel irony, bitter economic medicine and token financial assistance are presented as �the rewards� for transferring Milosevic to the jurisdiction of the Hague Tribunal. While the present IMF program is a �continuation� of the deadly economic reforms first imposed on federal Yugoslavia in the 1980s (and then on the �successor republics�), it promises to be far more devastating.

The G-17 - a group of economists which controls the Ministry of Finance and Yugoslavids Central Bank - has summed it up: �Immediately after taking office, the new government shall abolish all types of subsidies. This measure must be implemented without regrets or hesitation, since it will be difficult if not impossible to apply later, in view of the fact that in the meantime strong lobbies may appear to block such measures. This initial step in economic liberalization must be undertaken as `shock therapy� as its radical nature does not leave space for gradualism of any kind .... The servicing of debts and fiscal adjustments are likely to require cuts in public expenditure and the introduction of potentially unpopular new taxes and levies. The purchase of Serbian firms by wealthy domestic and foreign investors may also generate resentment, especially as it will represent a radical break with the former Yugoslav tradition of workers or `social� ownership. Nationalist and anti-reformist groups are likely to mobilize popular resistance by exploiting these problems. This form of political opposition would limit the scope for introducing effective reform and privatization.� �

The IMF program - put into full swing in the wake of the September 2000 elections - calls for the adoption of �prudent macroeconomic policies and bold structural re

forms. Upon assuming office, the Kostunica government - under IMF instructions -deregulated the prices of basic consumer goods and froze the wages of working people. With rising prices coupled with the deindexation ofwages ordered by the IMF, the new legislation allows the real minimum wage to slide to abysmally low levels.�