Serbian underworld figures held after assassination

Police today arrested several members of a shadowy underworld network accused of assassinating Serbia’s prime minister.

Zoran Djindjic was a a pro-Western leader who had made enemies by pushing for the arrest of gangsters and war crimes suspects.

Zarko Korac, Serbia’s deputy premier, said that “although several arrests were made, many of the suspects are still in hiding and have gone underground.”

A government-imposed state of emergency took effect today, a day after snipers killed Djindjic as he stepped out of his armoured car for meetings at a government building in central Belgrade.

The army’s top body, the Supreme Defence Council, raised the level of combat readiness and instructed the military to assist the police in the search for the assassins.

A statement late last night by the Serbian Cabinet blamed Milorad Lukovic, a warlord loyal to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and an underworld network known as the “Zemun Clan” after a Belgrade suburb, for allegedly organising the killing.

“Their aim was to trigger fear, lawlessness and chaos in the country,” the statement said. “The assassination ... was an attempt by this group to crush the fight against organised crime and help its individual members evade arrest.”

Korac did not say who had been arrested, but indicated that Lukovic was not among the suspects in custody.

“Djindjic assassinated by the Zemun Clan,” Belgrade newspapers said in headlines today over photographs of known members of the Serbian underworld and pictures of their arrest warrants.

The more infamous mob leaders include Dejan Milenkovic, known as Bugsy, Mile Lukovic, known as Godfather, Vladimir Milisavljevic, whose alias is Idiot, and Mladjan Micic, nicknamed Rat.

Police established checkpoints throughout the city, and officers armed with assault rifles searching cars and drivers.

The checkpoints were also set up on roads around the capital, and early today a police helicopter was seen hovering over the suburb of Rakovica.

There were fears the volatile Balkan country could plunge into violence in a possible power struggle for Djindjic’s successor.

The party of former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Djindjic’s political foe, criticised the Cabinet for ordering a state of emergency, calling it an “extreme and potentially hazardous measure” that would add to a “climate of fear and mistrust”.

“Little has been done in building real democracy in Serbia,” Kostunica’s party said, adding the authorities should instead have invited all political parties to form a ”transitional government”.

Djindjic had many enemies because of his pro-reformist and Western stands and his crackdown on organised crime, which is rampant in Serbia and across the Balkans.

He was despised by some for his role in toppling Milosevic in October 2000 and orchestrating his hand-over to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2001.

Djindjic outraged hard-liners and nationalists by calling for more arrests of top Serb indicted war crimes suspects, such as the world’s number two fugitive - former Bosnian Serb military commander General Ratko Mladic – who is believed to be hiding in Serbia.

He was also hated by powerful Serbian crime bosses and warlords allied with Milosevic, after recently declaring an open war on organised crime, rampant corruption and smuggling.

Just last month, Djindjic appeared to have been targeted in another assassination attempt, when a truck cut into the lane in which his motorcade was driving.

The motorcade narrowly avoided a collision, and Djindjic later dismissed the close call as a “futile effort” that could not stop democratic reforms.

A bitter power struggle for Djindjic’s successor could affect Serbia’s co-operation with the West and jeopardise the badly needed international aid he had secured. The assassination also could damage trading and discourage foreign investors.

Under the constitution, acting Serbian President Natasa Micic must nominate a successor to be approved by a majority vote of the Serbian parliament.

No funeral arrangements were immediately known. A commemoration ceremony was scheduled for later today when European Union envoys Chris Patten and Javier Solana were expected in Belgrade.

Shocked Belgrade residents lit candles and laid flowers overnight at the government building steps and outside Djindjic’s party headquarters in an outpouring of grief.