Serbian Prime Minister assassinated

[Guest bob_barron]

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic — a key leader of the revolt that toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) in October 2000 — was assassinated Wednesday by gunmen who ambushed him outside the government complex, police sources said.

 

 

Djindjic, 50, died in a Belgrade hospital after having been shot in the abdomen and back, the sources told The Associated Press.

 

 

Two people were arrested and one was injured in the shooting, witnesses said.

 

 

The government building where Djindjic was ambushed was sealed off by heavy state security, and three ambulances were parked in front. Police stopped traffic in downtown Belgrade, searching through cars and checking passengers.

 

 

Djindjic appeared to have been targeted last month, when a truck suddenly cut into the lane in which his motorcade was traveling to Belgrade's airport. The motorcade narrowly avoided a collision, and Djindjic later dismissed the Feb. 21 alleged assassination attempt as a "futile effort" that could not stop democratic reforms.

 

 

"If someone thinks the law and the reforms can be stopped by eliminating me, then that is a huge delusion," Djindjic was quoted as saying by the Politika newspaper at the time.

 

 

The assassination of Djindjic heralds turbulent days for Serbia and a bitter power struggle for his successor. Otpor, or Resistance, an independent pro-democracy group, said the shooting means "criminals have won the battle" in Serbia.

 

 

Djindjic had many enemies because of his pro-reformist and Western stands. He was key in Milosevic's extradition to the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague (news - web sites), Netherlands.

 

 

Djindjic, a pro-Western leader, saw Serbia's fate as linked to the West and favored greater cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal, where Milosevic now is standing trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

 

 

He was pivotal in arresting and handing Milosevic to the war crimes tribunal in June 2001. For this, he was blasted by Serbian nationalists, including his former ally Vojislav Kostunica (news - web sites), who stepped down as Yugoslav president earlier this month after the formation of a new state, Serbia and Montenegro.

 

 

Djindjic's feud with Kostunica since the two jointly toppled Milosevic had virtually paralyzed the country's much-needed economic and social reforms.

 

 

Djindjic was often criticized by his opponents for seeking too much power and for "mercilessly" attacking his political rivals.

 

 

A German-educated technocrat known to supporters as "The Manager" for his organizational skills and as "Little Slobo" to his detractors for his authoritarian tendencies, Djindjic nonetheless managed to gain some political capital from his willingness to surrender Milosevic despite a constitutional ban on extraditing Serbian citizens.

 

 

Though derided for his fondness for big cars and flashy suits, Djindjic's trade of Milosevic for $1.2 billion in international economic aid appeared to have won respect from people desperate to improve a living standard that ranks among the lowest in Europe.

 

 

Born in 1952 into the family of a Yugoslav army officer in the town of Bosanski Samac near the Bosnian border, Djindjic was raised and educated in Belgrade.

 

 

In the early 1970s he enrolled in the School of Philosophy at Belgrade University, a hotbed of liberal opposition to the Communist regime. In 1977, he left to earn a doctorate in philosophy at Heidelberg, Germany.

 

 

Djindjic had taken an active part in all protests against Milosevic's rule since 1991. He became Democratic Party president in 1994 and was active in the anti-government protests of 1996-97.

[Guest MD2020]

Damn it Barron--you beat me by a minute!!!

[Guest Anglesault]

Apparently this man had no bodyguards?

 

(Yes, I know that's not the guarantee of protection, but I see no mention, and this happened last month while he was on a MOTORCYCLE?)

[Guest Dr. Wrestlingphysics]

I hope this doesn't send the Balkan region back into war. That's got to obe the big worry about it.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

"If someone thinks the law and the reforms can be stopped by eliminating me, then that is a huge delusion," Djindjic was quoted as saying by the Politika newspaper at the time.

For everyone's sake, I hope this is true. Unfortunately, I doubt it.