Serbia Pushes Ahead With Djindjic Investigation

It would take a new prison to house all of the suspects arrested by Serb authorities in the hunt for the killer of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and the people behind the plot.

As part of the investigation launched after the March 12 sniper attack, police detained more than 7,000 people. Of these, nearly 2,000 are still in custody, creating the need to house some of the suspects in military prisons.

But such details are only of secondary importance to officials like the Serbian interior minister, Dusan Mihajlovic, who are interested in finding those responsible for the killing. And Mihajlovic expressed his satisfaction this week about the progress police have made.

"All of the questions have been answered in connection with the assassination," he said. "We have the exact list of people who were part of the plot and the shooting. ... What is more interesting: The majority have confessed to being part of the plot."

Shooting suspect in custody

The people under arrest include the main shooting suspect, Zvezdan Jovanovic, who was an assistant commander of the police Unit for Special Operations that fought in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Like many of the detained people, Jovanovic is suspected of being a member of a Belgrade-based criminal organization that controls the drug trade in and around the capital. The group is known as the Zemun gang, named after the district in Belgrade where it is based. Police are still searching for one of its leaders, Milorad Lukovic, a former commander of the police unit.

The charismatic Djindjic, who spearheaded the popular protests that brought down Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, was mortally wounded by two sniper bullets as he entered government buildings in the capital, Belgrade, on March 12.

Djindjic made many enemies as he tried to transform the Serbia left behind by Milosevic. His trade of Milosevic in return for $1.2 billion in western aid packages enraged nationalists, including his one-time ally, former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. Their resulting feud paralyzed moves to implement economic and social reform, viewed by analysts as vital to the country's future.

State of emergency declared

Djindjic also led efforts to establish democracy, and crack down on corruption and organized crime. After his death, the government declared a state of emergency and gave police extra powers to hold suspects and raid houses.

Serbia's justice minister, Vladan Batic, has said he expected the first trials to be held in the fall. And Djindjic's successor, Zoran Zivkovic, has said the state of emergency will be lifted in about three weeks if nothing serious happens.