Police uncover body of former Serb president

Police today said they had uncovered the grave of a former Serbian president who had been missing for three years.

Officers believe he had been killed by an elite police unit also suspected in the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

The police investigation following the March 12 killing of Djindjic uncovered the body of Ivan Stambolic, Serbia’s ex-president and a bitter foe of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Stambolic, Serbian president in the late 1980s, had been missing since August 2000, when he was abducted by unknown assailants while jogging in a Belgrade park.

It was believed that Milosevic ordered him removed because of fears he might have run in elections that year.

Stambolic’s body was found in a lime-covered grave on a mountain in northern Serbia, Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said.

He did not specify when the body was found. Mihajlovic blamed four members of a special police unit loyal to Milosevic for the murder. The four were arrested.

Mihajlovic said that the investigation has shown that the motive for Stambolic’s murder was political.

Police planned to interrogate Milosevic – who is on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands – and his influential wife Mirjana Markovic in connection with the uncovered grave, he added.

The police unit, known as Special Operations Unit, was disbanded on Wednesday after several of its members were arrested on charges they were linked to Djindjic’s assassination as he stepped from his armoured car in central Belgrade.

Last night, Serbian police shot dead two men described as top suspects in the Djindjic killing.

The two were leaders of an underworld group called Zemun Clan, accused by police of masterminding the killing.

The shoot-out happened in the south-west suburb of Barajevo. The gang members had been hiding there for days, armed with machine-guns and hand grenades, police said.

As officers tried to arrest them, they “opened automatic fire, forcing the officers to respond,” the authorities said.

Dusan Spasojevic, 35, and Mile Lukovic, 34, were killed. They were both considered top Zemun Clan leaders.

Thanks to the extraordinary capabilities of the special anti-terrorist troops, there were no police casualties,” a police statement said.

The authorities did not elaborate on the specific role the two played in Djindjic’s March 12 assassination, but a senior police officer said they were “directly involved in the plot to kill Djindjic, they organised it, they financed it.”

More than 3,000 suspects have been rounded up in the investigation into the sniper killing. About a third remain in custody.

The group’s ringleader, Milorad Lukovic, known as Legija remains at large. He is not related to Mile Lukovic.

A state of emergency imposed after Djindjic’s assassination remains in place.