| 20 January 2000 Getting Away with Murder The recent murder of Arkan throws the Yugoslav government, the mafia, and foreign spies into the lineup of usual suspects by Milorad Ivanovic |
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| BELGRADE-From 25 December, Yugoslav state television aired a serial called "Evidence," with the screenplay written by the recently assassinated Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic. His wife, the popular turbo-folk singer Ceca, had a leading role. In one episode, Ceca saw through a security camera that her fictional husband and his lover were having sex in his office. She went to the office and shot the lover, but the police arrested not Ceca's character but her husband, on whom she planted the gun. The show went off the air on 15 January, after Arkan was gunned down in Belgrade. Events in Yugoslavia over the past few months have had no shortage of their own drama. "Spiders" and "wasps" attack the Yugoslav president; spy rings are uncovered, though it's unclear who's spying on whom; an assassination attempt on an opposition leader with a truck loaded with sand; and last week's killing of Arkan, a leading gangster whose allegiance to the government seemed to be on the wane. Vojislav Tufegdzic, an editor with the Belgrade independent daily Blic, says he thinks that there is a link between the attempt on opposition leader Vuk Draskovic's life last fall and the recent killing of Arkan, "because it is clear that in both cases very well organized groups" were involved. "The regime is making panicky moves. In order to defeat their only enemy-the ordinary citizens themselves, the majority of whom are against the regime-the authorities started to invent conspiracies that are supposed to prove that opposition leaders are members of foreign secret services. That's ridiculous, because the only well-equipped secret service in the country is the Serbian State Security Service," says Tufegdzic. He is also the author of the cult 1995 documentary film See You in an Obituary, which featured two dozen leading Belgrade criminals, including Arkan. All of them, except for one (Kristijan Golubovic is now serving a prison sentence in Greece for robbery), have since been mysteriously killed. "The stories are propaganda aimed at diverting people's attention from real life problems and tightening the noose on people's necks," says Tufegdzic, adding that the spiral of executions may not be over yet. On 15 January, Arkan and his entourage were relaxing in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Belgrade by filling out football betting tickets when two masked gunmen burst into and sprayed the group with machine-gun fire. One of Arkan's bodyguards died instantly, while Arkan and his friend Dragan Garic were taken to hospital critically wounded. Both died later that evening. Police quickly sealed off the hotel and the hospital, where some dozen people-members of the mafia, but also well-known bankers close to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic-soon gathered. When the news came in that Arkan had died, many started crying, while some swore and made threats. A TANGLED WHODUNNIT Police have thusfar failed to issue a statement about the circumstances surrounding the killing, prompting an unprecedented avalanche of rumors and speculation. Most observers agree that Arkan's death is no surprise. Arkan had an immeasurably higher public profile than other gangsters and politicians killed in a similar manner. He was something of a renaissance man of Serbian life, with interests ranging from petty crime to war crimes to more benign civic activities. He was best-known as the leader of the paramilitary unit Tigers, which took part in war operations in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Arkan has been indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague for crimes against humanity. He was also the founder of the tiny Serbian Unity Party (which unequivocally supported the current regime until just a few weeks ago), and the owner of Obilic football club in Belgrade. Arkan began to work with the Serbian secret service in 1973, advancing his career by assassinating Yugoslav dissidents abroad. He was praised by the Yugoslav police for killing a group of Albanians in Stuttgart. He had good connections with the current regime, and it was widely believed that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic allowed him to work on the black market for gasoline. But recently, it was rumored that Arkan had plans to give to the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the Hague video tapes and other confidential material implicating Milosevic in countless atrocities during the Yugoslav wars. Some believed he was ready to testify, with the hope that the Tribunal would drop its accusation against him. Just before his death, the Belgian daily Le Soir wrote that Arkan had been in touch with Belgian authorities, allegedly to find out whether he would have any difficulties traveling there to visit his daughter. There were also speculations that through his lawyer, Giovanni di Stefano, he had passed on confidential documents to the tribunal. "Experienced Belgrade mobsters were suggesting that Arkan take his money and run because his life was in danger," says Milos Vasic, a journalist with the Belgrade weekly Vreme and one of the leading experts on the Serbian underworld. Vasic points out that the assassins must have been top professionals, as the two executioners did not make a single mistake. "I suppose that Arkan's political expiration date was up and that sometimes coincides with one's biological end. If you ask me who could have carried this out, I could say that there is only one organization in this country able to do it." Budimir Babovic, former vice president of the international anti-criminal force Interpol agrees that the killing was carried out in an "extremely professional" manner, pointing out that it is highly unusual for a police force that immediately gained access to the scene of a crime not to issue a statement in the first 24 hours after the incident. The police "must have found some evidence," says Babovic, adding that if the police don't resolve the murder soon, "we must ask whether they are hiding the information about the murder or perhaps are behind the murder." END OF PART ONE |