SERBIA: Serbian police have arrested a man they suspect was the sniper who killed Prime Minister Mr Zoran Djindjic, officials said yesterday.
Mr Djindjic's successor, Mr Zoran Zivkovic, identified the suspect as Mr Zvezdan Jovanovic, a former deputy commander of an elite unit of police troops formed under former president Slobodan Milosevic.
Mr Djindjic, Serbia's leading pro-Western politician, was killed by a sniper on March 12th as he stepped out of an armoured car in front of government headquarters in central Belgrade.
Authorities accused a shadowy organised crime gang known as the Zemun Clan of carrying out the murder. They imposed a state of emergency, launching a major hunt for leading crime figures and their associates in the judiciary, police and other state services. Mr Zivkovic said police had discovered a German-made sniper rifle that they suspect was used in the assassination. He said another man, identified as Sasa Pejakovic and suspected of aiding the sniper during the killing, has also been arrested.
Mr Djindjic had made enemies by declaring war on organised crime, which flourished in Serbia under Milosevic's rule.
He also angered some Serbs by vowing to arrest war crimes suspects wanted by the UN tribunal in The Hague. Police said yesterday that they had filed nearly 400 criminal charges against underworld figures.