The three staff in London said they were all Serbs and professed outrage at the Western alliance’s treatment of their people.”Why did the US attack Serbian positions?” As to the horrific attack on the Sarajevo market place which prompted the Nato assault, that was not the Serbs. They knew they were working for a firm accused by the US of sanctions-breaking. In an eerily quiet office – the phones rang just once during the Independent’s visit – they said their business was dealing in “agricultural machinery, metals and oil derivatives – crude oil”. They deny emphatically ever having themselves broken sanctions.

On the register, its directors are listed as two Greek Cypriots based in Nicosia. The company recently took out a mortgage with the Cyprus Popular Bank to redevelop new UK premises in Chesterfield Street, Mayfair.East Point owns 90 per cent of Yu Point, a Yugoslavian company and 51 per cent of M Point in Hungary.At their existing premises in Albermarle Street, Mayfair, East Point’s UK staff are furious at the Foreign Office’s refusal to grant their colleagues visas. No such list is available in this country and firms on the US register are allowed to carry on trading freely. Only if Customs decide to investigate and a prosecution ensues, do they face any ban.According to documents at Companies House in London, East Point describes itself as a “general trader” and has a turnover of $300m (pounds 190m) a year. “If someone is on the list, all transactions with them by US persons are prohibited and all their assets which come into the US jurisdiction are blocked,” he said.He added that a “very thorough” investigation, relying on information drawn from “all available agencies” had concluded the company had been trading with the Bosnian Serbs.The US list is published mainly as a warning to banks not to make loans to such companies.

East Point is on the US Government hit-list of companies suspected of busting sanctions which prohibit anything other than food or medical supplies reaching the Bosnian Serbs.
Chris Peacock, of the Department of Public Affairs at the US Treasury in Washington, said East Point was on the federal warning list. Two executives from a company in Cyprus are being refused entry to Britain because officials fear the firm has been dealing with the Bosnian Serbs in defiance of a United Nations embargo. The two work for East Point Holdings which has an office in Mayfair, central London, and is registered at Companies House. It was at my house and was entirely private, except, of course, for the trespassing photographers.What I’ve learnt from this week under siege is that when news is in short supply, truth is the first casualty As I write, photographers are still at my gates.. What they show is Chris and Diane in my car park from a vantage point well inside my property. Despite the Sun’s claim that this was a public meeting, it was not.

He writes: “The public-interest justification is trotted out merely as a camouflage for gross and cynical intrusion into the privacy of people, solely for the purpose of selling newspapers.”Wednesday’s Sun carries a series of photographs that it claims were shot in a muddy lane. Vincent Browne’s piece in the Sunday Times catches the mood; he is outraged by what happened to Diane and the three children. If they can’t even report accurately on what they can see, then God knows what their speculation is based upon.The Sunday papers come as a relief. As we work our way through them, it becomes evident that the behaviour of the reporters has not met with universal approval There is a strong sense of overkill. It also informs its readers that he had played golf, and that he was wearing an Arran sweater and waterproof trousers None of this is true. There is a photograph of him going towards the back door of my house “Chris cowers in cow shed,” runs the story. After being tracked down by intrepid Sun reporters, he left for another friend’s house.