Singer arrested in hunt for killers of Serbian PM

POLICE hunting the assassins of the Serbian prime minister raided the home of a murdered warlord yesterday and arrested his widow, the Balkan republic’s most popular folk singer.

Police said Svetlana Raznatovic, known as Ceca, was arrested for sheltering ringleaders of an underworld group blamed for Zoran Djindjic’s murder in a sniper attack last week.

She was married to underworld boss and warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, nicknamed Arkan, who was killed in a gangland-style attack in a Belgrade hotel in January 2000.

Arkan, Serbia’s most prominent warlord, led paramilitary troops that allegedly committed atrocities during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, and was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Authorities have accused the underworld Zemun Clan organisation, named after a Belgrade suburb, of being behind Djindjic’s assassination.

The group’s leader, Milorad Lukovic, a paramilitary commander under Arkan and Milosevic, remains at large.

The clan is made up of crime bosses, drug traffickers and shadowy paramilitary figures dating back to the regime of ousted former President Slobodan Milosevic.

Nearly 400 people have been arrested so far in the investigation.

Djindjic was instrumental in toppling Milosevic in 2000. He ordered Milosevic’s handover to The Hague tribunal in 2001. That, along with his pro-Western stance and a recent declaration of war on organised crime and corruption, made him many enemies.

Special police troops descended on Raznatovic’s headquarters and his family’s home yesterday. After his widow’s arrest, they collected boxes of material, including machine guns, and packed them in police vans.

Witnesses said police detained several private guards at Arkan’s compound in the exclusive Belgrade district of Dedinje.

Ceca is adored by her fans for her sex appeal and folk songs that arouse nationalist emotions.

Last summer, she drew more than 100,000 fans to a concert at Belgrade’s main football stadium.

She was named folk singer of the year by a TV station the day before Djindjic was killed.

“We are tightening the noose, it is just a matter of days before Lukovic is behind bars,” said Cedomir Jovanovic, a close Djindjic aide.

Of those arrested so far, four have offered to testify for the prosecutors in exchange for protected witness status, the government said.