Slavo Kukić for N1: Why is no one seeking accountability from Croatia, which is a 12% co-owner of Aluminij?

SARAJevo, (Patria) - When it comes to reaping benefits, it's Croatian, and when it comes to settling accounts, it's state-owned.

This is how Professor Slavo Kukić commented on the situation at the Mostar-based company Aluminij, which faces a complete collapse due to multi-million dollar debts, reports the Patria News Agency.

Aluminij's director Dražen Pandža announced on Wednesday that the Mostar factory will be shut down at the first minute on Saturday, due to enormous debts that it can no longer finance.

In recent years, Aluminij has been operating at a loss, and the company's total debt amounts to almost 400 million marks, of which more than half is debt for consumed electricity.

Swiss Glencore, which does business with Aluminij, paid for electricity for Aluminij for an additional four days on Thursday, during which time a solution for the company will be attempted.

Around 150 Aluminij workers came to the building of the FBiH Government in Sarajevo yesterday, seeking help for the company.

If Aluminij ceases operations, around 900 workers will be left jobless. The Trade Union yesterday accused the company's management of taking huge salaries and other benefits all along, and in return pushing the company to ruin.

Professor Kukić stated for TV N1 that it is unfair that all responsibility in the case of Aluminij is directed towards the FBiH Government.

"It is being asked to provide electricity at special tariffs, although no one mentions the consequences of this - the state will lose new dividends, 500,000 pensioners will be endangered, as well as education, healthcare, and so on," Kukić said.

"No one is looking at the minority shareholders who own 44 percent. And finally, no one is asking about Croatia, which is a 12% co-owner of Aluminij, and what its obligations are. For example, from the electricity it produces from the Buško Lake accumulation, and has been stealing from another country for 30 years, and today it is waiting to see what will happen to Aluminij," he added.

Professor Kukić believes that the main address for responsibility for the collapse of Aluminij should be directed towards, as Kukić accused, "the criminal ideology of the HDZ, which employs relatives and party cadres there."

Look who is employed at Aluminij, said Professor Kukić, it's the relatives of Čović, Bevanda, Miličević - the most prominent circle of the HDZ.