POLITICS-SERBIA&MONTENEGRO: New Battle Against an Old Enemy

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Mar 19 2003 (IPS) - The Serbian police are conducting a manhunt all over the country in an effort to find the killers of former prime minister Zoran Djindjic who was assassinated last Wednesday.

The police have made more than 400 arrests, most of them in Belgrade. The arrested are members of the ‘Zemun Clan’ or closely connected to it, the Interior Ministry says.

Under the state of emergency declared immediately after the death of the reform-minded Djindjic, the arrested can remain in prison up to 30 days without charge. They also have no right to a lawyer during that period.

The Zemun clan, with an estimated 200 members and 20 top leaders, is named after a Belgrade neighbourhood. The police say members of the clan who have close ties to anti-reform figures are behind the murder.

Two top leaders of the Zemun clan, Milorad Lukovic Legija and Dusan Spasojevic are believed to have left the country.

"The latest arrests came as a result of cooperation with citizens," the police said in a statement. Of the top 20 suspects, three are now in custody, the police say.

Among those arrested is the most popular folk singer in Serbia, Svetlana-Ceca Raznatovic following a search of her villa that lasted all of Monday.

"Dozens of handguns, automatic rifles and silencers, 5,000 bullets of 7.62 calibre and police and military equipment were found in the Raznatovic house," the police statement said. "Ms Raznatovic provided shelter to Lukovic and Spasojevic in the days before and after the killing of Djindjic."

The popular singer was married to warlord Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan who was assassinated in January 2000. Arkan led the paramilitary ‘Tigers’ suspected in many war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia. Lukovic was Arkan’s deputy commander.

In 1996 Lukovic was appointed head of the Special Units of the Serbian police. He retired after former president Slobodan Milosevic fell from power in 2000.

Milosevic’s propaganda machinery portrayed Arkan, Lukovic, their patrons and dozens of warlords as "patriots who defended Serbs outside Serbia".

Jovica Stanisic, head of the secret police in Milosevic’s times and Frenki Simatovic, his deputy, were reported to have been the patrons of Arkan and Lukovic. Both were arrested over the weekend.

Gangs of criminals organised by Milosevic’s secret police are believed to have joined the battle ranks in the wars of the nineties. They are supposed also to have been involved in state-sponsored smuggling operations. Millions of dollars from trafficking in cigarettes, gasoline and drugs ended in the pockets of the regime and the warlords.

"Until today, they (the criminals) kept their ties with some people in the police, judiciary and the prosecution," deputy prime minister Zarko Korac told IPS. "Our policy of reconciliation towards the remnants of Milosevic’s era backfired on us. Pseudo-heroes remained killers as they always were."

Djindjic and Lukovic forged a deal ahead of mass demonstrations on October 5, 2000 when anti-Milosevic mass protests led to Milosevic’s downfall. Lukovic said that his special police units would not shoot at people if the armed men among protesters do not shoot at the special police.

But Djindjic later ordered a crackdown on Lukovic and other gangsters suspected of smuggling drugs and women across the Balkans.

The Zemun Clan loyal to Lukovic became involved in dozens of abductions and politically motivated killings of anti-Milosevic politicians and journalists, the police say.

"Although the fall of Milosevic was bloodless, this event proves that dictators do not fall without bloodshed," lawyer Srdja Popovic told IPS. "His rule was too horrible and devastating to have simply ended peacefully."