Serbian police uncover body of former president

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- Police found the remains of a former Serbian president and blamed the killing Friday on the same elite police unit suspected in the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

The body of Ivan Stambolic, who had been missing for nearly three years, was discovered Thursday in a lime-covered pit on a northern Serbian mountain, Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said. He had been shot twice.

Police said they want to question Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav strongman now on trial for war crimes.

He and Stambolic -- who led Serbia during the communist era -- were bitter foes and it is widely believed Milosevic had Stambolic removed in the October 2000 Yugoslav presidential elections.

Milosevic lost that vote and was toppled in a popular revolt after refusing to concede defeat.

Police also said they want to question Milosevic's influential wife, Mirjana Markovic, in connection with Stambolic's death. A police source said they were searching for her, suggesting she was on the run.

Stambolic disappeared Aug. 25, 2000, while jogging in a Belgrade park. He was one of the most prominent victims of a series of high-profile abductions and murders toward the end of Milosevic's 13-year rule.

The discovery of his body follows the arrest earlier this week of 15 members of an elite police force suspected in Djindjic's assassination, including the alleged triggerman, deputy commander Zvezdan Jovanovic.

Mihajlovic said four of those arrested were also behind Stambolic's killing. The unit, set up during Milosevic's rule, was disbanded on Wednesday.

Djindjic was shot to death March 12 as he stepped out of his armored car in downtown Belgrade. Authorities believe the assassination was organized by the criminal group Zemun Clan.

The ringleader, Milorad Lukovic, was once the commander of the elite police unit. He remains at large.

As prime minister, Djindjic engineered Milosevic's extradition to the Netherlands-based U.N. tribunal where the former president now is on trial for genocide and other war crimes. Afterward, Djindjic spearheaded efforts to crack down on the underworld, which made him many enemies.

Late Thursday, Serbian police killed two high-profile members of the clan who were also said to be top suspects in the Djindjic killing.

The two, Dusan Spasojevic, 35, and Mile Lukovic, 34, were gunned down in a shootout with the police in a Belgrade suburb where they had been hiding for days, armed with machine-guns and hand grenades. Mile Lukovic was not related to Milorad Lukovic.

Police have rounded up more than 3,000 suspects in the investigation that followed the assassination. About a third of them remain in custody.

Milosevic's regime forged ties between paramilitaries he sent to fight in the 1990s Balkan wars and underworld gangs.

The paramilitaries were later given a free hand to join the elite police unit while maintaining their links to crime and drug trafficking rings, authorities say. These ties continued even after Milosevic's ouster.

Stambolic's association with Milosevic dates back to the 1960s when the two started climbing the rungs of power in the Communist Party, which ruled Yugoslavia until the country started falling apart in 1991.

By 1980, Stambolic was president of Serbia, the country's largest republic -- and Milosevic's mentor. Then, in 1987, Milosevic staged a coup, purging Stambolic and replacing him both as Serbian president and head of the republic's Communist Party.

Over time Stambolic became one of Milosevic's most prominent critics. In a 1991 open letter, he predicted that the nationalistic policies of his erstwhile protege in Kosovo and elsewhere would destroy Yugoslavia and plunge Serbia into isolation.

Stambolic's son said the discovery of Stambolic's unmarked grave offered the family some relief.

"I cannot begin to imagine the horror my father had to go through," said his son, Veljko Stambolic. "We demand further prosecution of Milosevic, his wife and others who ordered this murder."