Army General Arrested for Djindjic Murder

A former army intelligence chief and another ranking ally of former Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica have been arrested in connection with last month's assassination of the Serbian prime minister.

Aco Tomic, who headed the Yugoslav army intelligence service until last month, and Mr Kostunica's former security adviser, Rade Bulatovic, were arrested yesterday for their alleged contacts with a criminal gang suspected of organising the assassination of Zoran Djindjic on March 12.

"The investigation into the killing of Zoran Djindjic has revealed important evidence of meetings and agreements between the main organisers of the assassination and Mr Tomic and Mr Bulatovic," the government statement faxed to Associated Press said.

Mr Bulatovic and Mr Tomic, a Milosevic-era general, were close allies of Mr Kostunica, who stepped down as Yugoslav president earlier this year following the transformation of the country into a loose union of its two republics, Serbia and Montenegro.

The arrests appeared to foreshadow a possible crackdown against Mr Kostunica and his neo-nationalist party. Critics of a massive police sweep in the wake of Mr Djindjic's murder claim it is being used to clamp down on political opponents of Serbia's pro-western government.

Nearly 8,000 people have been rounded up in the hunt for suspects in Mr Djindjic's assassination. More than 2,000 remain in custody and are to face charges.

The government declared a state of emergency immediately following the assassination, allowing police and courts to hold suspects for up to 30 days without bringing charges.

The investigation into the assassination of Serbia's prime minister uncovered a plot to topple the pro-democratic government and replace it with nationalist allies of Milosevic, police sources have said.

The terse government statement today did not give further details of the alleged meetings between Mr Kostunica's allies and the underworld bosses, nor does it specify the roles the two arrested man allegedly had in the assassination.

In an interview today with Blic daily, Mr Kostunica said he wasn't aware of the alleged meetings the two had with the crime bosses. He accused unspecified government officials of links with organised crime, and claimed allegations against his associates were politically motivated.

"The tragedy of Djindjic's assassination and the state of emergency are being used for a crackdown against political opponents," Mr Kostunica said. "Can you imagine anyone in America blaming the Republicans for [John] Kennedy's assassination?"

Mr Kostunica denied suggestions that he had special ties with Mr Tomic. "I cooperated with him as I did with other members of the army command," he said.

Mr Kostunica and Mr Djindjic were allies when they jointly toppled former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

Mr Kostunica then took over Milosevic's job, while Mr Djindjic became the prime minister of Serbia, the dominant republic of the former Yugoslavia.

But the two leaders - Mr Djindjic, a pro-Western pragmatist, and Mr Kostunica, a moderate nationalist - soon turned against each other.

They clashed over the pace of democratic reforms and over whether to extradite Milosevic and other war crime suspects to the UN tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands.

Mr Djindjic was instrumental in getting Milosevic extradited to the Hague in 2001, a move strongly opposed by Mr Kostunica, who has long accused the court of being biased against Serbs.