BAT partner financed Serb war criminals says Croat magazine
Jump to full article: The Observer (uk), 2001-07-15
Author: Antony Barnett and Pazit Ravina
Intro: Clarke's office last night refused to comment on the disclosures but revealed that he intends to sever all links with BAT if he wins the Tory leadership.
It has emerged that BAT cut a deal to build a £50 million cigarette factory in former Yugoslavia with multi-millionaire Serbian businessman Stanko Subotic.
An investigation by the Croatian magazine Nacional into the alleged criminal activities of Subotic detailed his cigarette-smuggling operations. It also claimed his money helped to hide former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the commander in charge at the time of the Srebrenica massacre which killed up to 8,000 people. Both men are wanted in The Hague for crimes against humanity. . .
Balkan experts believe that throughout the last decade cigarette-smuggling was a key instrument of the Yugoslav secret service, which used it to help finance the Balkan wars.
The revelation of links between BAT and Kestner has already forced one senior European politician to resign from the company's board. In May Peter Hess, the speaker of the Swiss parliament, quit his job with BAT.
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