Serb Leader Is Assassinated By DANIEL SIMPSON
BELGRADE, Serbia, March 12 - Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, a reformer who helped overthrow Slobodan Milosevic and sent him to face a war crimes trial, was assassinated outside his office in downtown Belgrade today. Mr. Djindjic, who was 50 and had many political enemies, was shot in the back and the stomach with bullets fired from a sniper rifle, the police said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. Officials and political analysts alike speculated that the assassination was ordered by members of Belgrade's powerful criminal underworld, whose influence the government has come under strong international pressure to curb. Mr. Djindjic's murder leaves Serbia with neither a prime minister nor an elected president as it struggles to rebuild from a decade of wars that made the country an international pariah. Western governments had pinned their hopes on Mr. Djindjic to steer through reforms and none of the politicians likely to succeed him has the same backing from international officials. The government, an unwieldy coalition that relies on Mr. Milosevic's old party for a majority in Parliament, immediately declared a state of emergency and appointed the deputy prime minister, Nebojsa Covic, as Mr. Djindjic's temporary replacement. Like the acting president, Natasa Micic, who took over last year after low voter turnout invalidated two successive presidential elections, he has no popular mandate and represents a fringe political party. Mr. Djindjic's chief political rival, Vojislav Kostunica, said all parties should now pull together to tackle the gangster culture that flourished under Mr. Milosevic's government, which turned criminals into contract killers and smugglers into oligarchs. Today's assassination was "a terrible wake-up-call," Mr. Kostunica said, "which shows the very short distance we have traveled in our efforts to achieve real democracy in our society." The government building where Mr. Djindjic was ambushed was sealed off by heavily armed state security officers. Police officers carrying machine-guns and wearing bulletproof vests stopped traffic in downtown Belgrade, searching through cars and checking passengers. All flights from Belgrade airport were canceled. Tributes to Mr. Djindjic poured in from abroad, where officials praised his efforts to put war criminals on trial and the economy on the road to long-term recovery. But in Serbia, where fewer people yet see the benefits of such reforms, the reaction was more muted. Some of the people gathered outside the government building where he was shot were in tears, but after the assassinations of several other senior officials over the past decade others were almost indifferent. "Sure it's a tragedy, but he's not the only one," said one woman who gave her name only as Branka. "People are dying all the time here and no one seems to do much about it." ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international -- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
