Posted on 03/12/2003 9:20:11 PM PST by Mensch
BELGRADE, Serbia - Montenegro, March 13 (UPI) -- The Serbian government Thursday is preparing to arrest the ex-head of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's secret police for the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
Milorad Lukovic, the former commander of Milosevic's police special operations unit, or JSO, and Dusan Spasojevic, another JSO member, headed the gang, the government said in a statement Wednesday. It said Djindjic's assassination was an attempt by the gang to cause chaos, lawlessness and fear in the country.
Djindjic, 50, was struck by bullets fired from a high-powered rifle perched in a nearby government building as he walked from his car to his office. He died during surgery at Belgrade's Emergency Hospital, official sources said.
The prime minister was perhaps best known for his role in the arrest and extradition of Milosevic for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. Djindjic has also been trying to crack down on organized crime in Serbia. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
The government is reported to have signed arrest warrants for the 200-strong Zemun clan, believed to be the largest such group in the former Yugoslavia.
Serbia's acting president, Natasa Micic, called a state of emergency, adding, "The murder of Dr. Djindjic represents an attack on the constitutional order and the greatest crime against the stability and security of our state."
The president of the Serbian constitutional court, Slobodan Vucetic, said the state of emergency meant transferring police to army command and suspending certain civil liberties such as protest demonstrations and industrial strikes. He also said the state may introduce control of written, telephone and similar communications of all suspected persons as well as a ban on spreading any news by way of media deemed as "overthrowing the constitutional order."
Observers in Belgrade said Wednesday Lukovic, who is also called Legija, is heavily guarded by his JSO associates and well-armed members of the gang. They said there might be violence if and when the government decided to seize the group and its leaders.
Members of the clan are suspected of being behind a string of recent high-profile crimes in the country. It has been linked to the abduction and presumed killing of former President Ivan Stambolic and to two attempts on the life of opposition leader Vuk Draskovic.
Informed sources said Lukovic fled to France in the 1980s after a spectacular robbery in Belgrade. There, following a spell as a bouncer in a nightclub, he joined the French Foreign Legion.
In the early 1990s, he deserted the Legion and returned home where he befriended notorious paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic, or Arkan, and joined his Serbian Volunteer Guard. The group operated in Croatia and Bosnia during the ethnic wars in the two former Yugoslav republics.
Legija (Serbian for "legion") then joined the JSO, or Red Berets, the best trained and equipped elite unit controlled by Milosevic's secret police. He rapidly rose to become the group's commander and attained the rank of colonel.
On the eve of the popular uprising against Milosevic in October 2000, Djindjic, who was its leader and driving force, contacted Legija and persuaded him to side with hundreds of thousands of anti-Milosevic demonstrators. As a result, his troops drove peacefully through Belgrade on Oct. 5 and were cheered by the protesters.
The sources said Legija was believed to expect some favors from the new democratic government in return for his services. In November 2001, members of his Red Berets mutinied and blocked the international road from Western Europe to Greece and Bulgaria at Belgrade. Some months later, Legija was linked to at least two violent incidents and was put on pension. Sources said, however, he maintained power though the JSO was formally placed under the control of the Serbian police ministry.
Wednesday's government statement linked him and Spasojevic to the Zemun clan and its criminal activities.
The gang is also suspected by the government of bring behind abductions, more than 50 killings, drug trafficking and a recent bombing.
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