Suspects in PM killing arrested

BELGRADE - Serbian police swept through the underworld yesterday in their hunt for the killers of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, making dozens of arrests. But three prime suspects remained at large.

Police arrested 56 people, a Government statement said, including eight key members of a criminal group it said was behind the assassination of the reformist premier, who played a pivotal role in the ousting of ex-Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in late 2000.

Three of them had asked for protected witness status and were giving statements to a special prosecutor.

But the Government said police were still looking for the three leaders of the so-called Zemun gang, including a former commander of a special police unit that saw action in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Zarko Korac, the deputy prime minister, described the Zemun gang as, "Probably the best organised gang in the Balkans, with millions of euros obtained from kidnappings".

He added, "They have everything - killers, information sources. Several of them have been in hiding for several days, which is very close to an admission of guilt."

There was incomprehension in Belgrade as to why Djindjic had not been offered better protection with such a group of killers pursuing him. He was shot in the chest and stomach by a gunman from several hundred yards. The murder sparked fears across Europe for the future of democracy in Serbia.

Acting prime minister Nebojsa Covic said the perpetrators were set on changing the whole nature of the Government.

"The goal of those who committed this crime was to destabilise the country, the authorities in the country and to create chaos and to change power that way," he said.

But the Finance Minister said reforms would continue, and Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic, another leading reformer, told a news conference the Government would not be cowed.

The European Union, which Serbia aspires to join, rushed to give assurances that the 15-nation bloc would support Belgrade in its attempts to shore up stability in Serbia and the Balkans.

European foreign policy chief Javier Solana and External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten flew to Belgrade to express the EU's continued political and financial support for Serbia, impoverished after a decade of Balkan wars and isolation.

"There can be no going back, no turning back," Patten said.

Political analysts said Serbia had to move swiftly to crush the criminal gangs behind the murder or face chronic instability which would ruin its chances of rejoining Europe's mainstream.

"It is a wake-up call, especially for those in the West who have failed to acknowledge the power of organised crime in southeast Europe," Misha Glenny, author of books on the former Yugoslavia and the Balkans, said.

Djindjic, 50, who became Prime Minister in February 2001, was shot outside Belgrade's main Government building. It was Djindjic who sent Milosevic to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity linked to the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The decision enraged nationalists.

Glenny played down talk of a descent into civil war, but experts said a prolonged power vacuum could spark more political violence, scare off much-needed foreign investment and drag down the rest of the Balkan region.

The Government announced three days of mourning for Djindjic - the first European government leader to be killed since Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.

Hundreds of mourners filed by the Government building in central Belgrade, laying flowers and lighting candles. Djindjic's funeral will be held in Belgrade today.

His death leaves Serbia with neither a prime minister nor elected president since two votes failed because of a low turnout. Another presidential poll is not expected for several months, but Djindjic's Democratic Party, the biggest in the ruling DOS coalition, said it would nominate a new prime minister tomorrow.

-REUTERS