New Serbian Leader Pledges Further Reforms

The 250-seat Serbian legislature elected 42-year-old Zoran Zivkovic as the new prime minister of Serbia on Tuesday. The pro-Western politician and former Yugoslav Interior Minister, Zoran Zivkovic, was among assassinated Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic's closest allies.

Djindjic, 50, who played a key role in toppling former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic and handing him over to the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, was shot dead by a gunman outside the main government building in Belgrade on March 12, 2003.

Zivkovic, a deputy leader of the ruling Democratic Party coalition (DOS), was expected to become defense minister in the new loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, which replaced the old Yugoslavia last month. But with Djindjic's shock killing, Zivkovic became the favored candidate to take over the country's reins given his party's determination to carry on with the much-needed, Western-backed economic and political reforms that had been championed by the slain Djindjic.

Hunting down Djindjic's killers

Shortly after being sworn in, Zivkovic told reporters that tracking down Djindjic's killers would be a priority.

"The most important thing for the Serbian government is to find the killers, or the inspirers of Zoran Djindjic's murder, the fight against organized crime," he said.

Zivkovic, like Djindjic a prime opponent of Slobodan Milosevic during the massacres orchestrated by the dictator during the 1990s, told parliament that police searching for the killers had so far detained more than 750 people in a crackdown targeting 155 known criminal gangs.

Police said late Monday they had arrested two alleged leaders of the Belgrade criminal group, which the government has accused of carrying out the killing. However, suspected ringleaders including a former police commander remain at large.

Zivkovic vows to stick to economic reforms

Zivkovic, whom observers view as coldly calculating when it comes to politics, will be watched closely by the international community to continue pro-market economic reforms that the struggling Serbian economy desperately needs.

Zivkovic has assured that the government would remain "on the same path, with the same tasks and unchanged goals." But in a sign of challenges ahead, he has already lowered this year's economic growth forecast from 5.0 to 3.5 percent.

Less panache than predecessor

Though his close political allies are convinced that Zivkovic is the right man to take over the helm of Serbia, doubting voices linger in the country over whether Zivkovic can sufficiently fill the vacuum left in Djindjic's absence.

The slain premier was widely regarded as a seasoned political operator who could hold his own on the world stage and whose Western education and background endeared him to many world leaders. By contrast, Zivkovic comes from the small farming province of Nis and later moved to Belgrade, where he completed a business school education. Compared to Djindjic's polished air, Zivkovic is said to display traces of his small-town origins both in his speech and mannerisms.

But despite the obvious disadvantages in terms of background and grooming when compared to his predecessor, Zivkovic, who is a married father of two, is believed to be an energetic person, with a mind of his own. He is highly regarded for his resoluteness and determination in decision-making. He has always made it clear that he may not know the West as well as Djindjic did, but he seeks to make up for it with his intimate knowledge of the issues important to Serbs.

A meteoric rise

Zivkovic's rapid rise up the political ladder is undisputed. He entered the ruling Democratic Party in 1992 and within months was ensconced in the Serbian Parliament and became head of the party in his home town of Nis.

He secured his first political coup in Nis, which with 175,000 inhabitants is the third-largest city in the country. For three months, Zivkovic led tens of thousands of demonstrators in protest marches through the streets as part of the opposition's protest against authoritarian Slobodan Milosevic.

They accused him of rigging the polls in the communal elections. The protestors made a successful case and Zivkovic was appointed the first non-communist Mayor of Nis.

Zivkovic then made himself a name as a courageous negotiator and skilled organizer while dealing with the European Union and the U.S. as they pumped aid into impoverished opposition communities providing a front against Milosevic.

That was also one of the reasons Zivkovic, a former entrepreneur, was made Yugoslav Interior Minister in 2001 following the regime change. He made it his mission to castigate the somnambulistic pace of reforms of the police forces in the Republic of Serbia and threw his weight behind tackling organized crime.

Zivkovic was also appointed to the National Council to cooperate with the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Together with Djindjic, he played a major role in handing over suspected war criminals.

"We won't change course"

In a sign that he's on the right track to reform, Zivkovic had a message for the international community after being sworn in as the new Serbian prime minister on Tuesday.

"I want to tell our friends abroad one thing: What you have begun, what the Democratic Party has begun, what the Serbian government has begun -- we won't change anything about that ... We won't change course," he said.