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Serb assassin suspect claims heroin conspiracy
14 Jun 2004 17:27:33
GMT
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(Recasts with details, accusations
against Djindjic aides)
By Beti Bilandzic
BELGRADE, June 14 (Reuters) - The prime suspect in the assassination of
Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic denied on Monday he was behind the
killing, but gave the court a detailed account of an alleged plot to "bomb" the
West with heroin.
Analysts said it was just the sort of political smear they had expected
from the appearance in court of Milorad "Legija" Lukovic, former commander of a
crack police unit.
Rumours that the ex-Foreign Legionnaire would spill the beans on alleged
corruption in Djindjic's cabinet sprouted the moment he gave himself up on May 2
after 14 months on the run. The aim, said Djindjic supporters, would be to
tarnish the man who became the cutting edge of democratic reform in Serbia.
"With regard to the murder of Zoran Djindjic...I had absolutely nothing
to do with this event," Lukovic told the trial of 13 accused in the March 12,
2003, murder.
Djindjic was shot dead by a sniper outside government headquarters.
Prosecutors say crime bosses linked to the unit headed by Lukovic, and who had
enjoyed the protection of the Slobodan Milosevic regime, were bent on toppling
him.
The young reformer had not only infuriated nationalists by sending the
former strongman to the UN war crimes tribunal, where he is now on trial, but
was preparing a crackdown on organised crime. The exact motive for the crime,
however, remains obscure.
"Regarding the allegations in the indictment I do not feel guilty,"
Lukovic said. "I did not associate with anyone nor did I commit hostile
activities against anyone...," he added.
FOG OF CONSPIRACY
The secrets of the Milosevic years, effectively a decade of one-man rule
backed by secret police, still have Serbia wrapped in a thick fog of conspiracy.
Lukovic alleged that after Milosevic was arrested in 2001, a plot was
hatched by several aides in Djindjic's entourage, who saw their sudden
possession of 700 kg (1,540 pounds) of state-seized heroin as a great way to
avenge NATO's bombing of Serbia over Kosovo in 1999 -- and to make money.
The narcotics lode had been taken from drug-runners a few years earlier
by Serbian police and kept in a Belgrade bank vault, where it was once shown off
to the press.
Lukovic said top Djindjic aides told him it would be silly to throw away
something worth hundreds of millions of dollars that could be sold for the
profit of the impoverished state.
The West gave us bombs and depleted uranium, so why not pay them back in
hard drugs, the argument went.
"To tell you the truth, I rather liked it. It could be a little bit of
revenge of us ordinary people, who were bombed for 78 days, And if that is the
will of the state, then I accept", he explained to the court.
A number of the aides he named immediatley denied the story in broadcast
interviews on Monday, calling it a fabrication. One said the heroin was
destroyed in keeping with the law.
But Lukovic said he smuggled the heroin with three of his men, across the
rivers Danube and Drina and into neighbouring Bosnia, Croatia and Romania for
later sale in western Europe.
