Milosevic's wife sought for questioning

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- There are "credible suspicions" the wife of former President Slobodan Milosevic was involved in the murder of her husband's predecessor, and she must return from Russia immediately for questioning, Serbia authorities said Saturday.

The alleged involvement of Mirjana Markovic in the 2000 disappearance and killing of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic was uncovered by police investigating the March 12 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

Serbia's Interior Ministry said police were "searching intensely" for Markovic, citing "credible suspicions of her involvement in the murder" of Stambolic.

An order to detain Markovic for questioning was issued Friday, shortly after police found the remains of Stambolic, a Milosevic foe who led Serbia during the communist era and disappeared in August 2000 while jogging in a Belgrade park.

After questioning two of Markovic's associates -- officials from her neo-communist Yugoslav Left party, police learned Markovic left the country Feb. 23 and currently is in the Russian Federation, a ministry statement said.

Authorities informed Markovic's lawyers that an international warrant for her arrest will be issued unless she returns immediately.

Milosevic's brother, Borislav, a former ambassador to Russia who lives in Moscow, refused to comment when reached by phone.

The discovery of Stambolic's body, shot with two bullets and thrown into a lime pit in northern Serbia, came as police rounded up and questioned thousands of Milosevic-era war veterans, drug traffickers and various underworld figures while investigating Djindjic's murder.

That investigation shed light on the unsolved Stambolic case.

The Interior Ministry called Markovic a "person of utmost political influence" at the time of Stambolic's murder, but did not elaborate on specific details of her alleged involvement. No formal charges have been brought.

The ministry said late Saturday it had arrested the acting president of Milosevic's Socialist Party, Bogoljub Bjelica, "in the course of arresting people who had ordered and incited" Djindjic's murder.

A police crackdown triggered by Djindjic's assassination has led to the arrests of 1,984 people, including a suspected gunman and dozens of crime figures who allegedly helped organize the murder.

On Thursday, two suspects who led a drug trafficking ring and had close ties to Milosevic's loyalists were shot dead by police as they resisted arrest, authorities said.

Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said Friday that members of the elite police Unit for Special Operations, founded under Milosevic and active in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, shot Djindjic and abducted and killed Stambolic. The unit was disbanded last week by government decree.

Stambolic was Serbia's president from 1986 until 1987, when Milosevic -- his protege and a fellow member of the then-ruling Communist Party -- engineered a coup, taking over the leadership of both the party and the presidency. Milosevic later became president of Yugoslavia.

Milosevic's closest ally was his wife, who founded the Yugoslav Left party that ruled alongside Milosevic's Socialists -- the renamed Communists.

After 1987, Stambolic mostly withdrew from politics but was rumored in 2000 to be a possible challenger to Milosevic in presidential elections that year. He then disappeared.

Months later, Milosevic lost power to a coalition of democratic parties under Djindjic's leadership and later was extradited to the Netherlands-based U.N. war crimes tribunal, where he now is on trial.