20 March 2003 Morning Edition

World News

• Attack on Baghdad begins (Guardian)
• War on Iraq launched (BBC News)
• Text of Bush's speech to the U.S. (IHT/NYT)
• U.S. Opens War With Strikes On Baghdad Aimed at Hussein (W Post)
• Coming US Iraq war stirs mixed memories in Balkans (Reuters)

Regional News

Serbia Montenegro

• Senior official held over Djindjic death (BBC)
• Serbian police identify two out of three assassins of prime (AP)
• War of words in Serbia in hunt for PM's killers (Reuters)
• Serbia: Mafia's Days Numbered? (IWPR)

Attack on Baghdad begins

Mark Tran and agencies

Thursday March 20, 2003

The US today began its military assault on Iraq with an opportunistic attempt to kill Saddam Hussein and the rest of his Iraqi leadership through a salvo of cruise missiles and bombs. But the attempt to "decapitate" the Iraqi government appeared to have failed, when President Saddam made what Iraqi state television said was a live TV address. In a short but defiant address, the Iraqi dictator vowed to lead his country to victory after "America's criminal acts". The long-awaited attack against Iraq began with Tomahawk cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs dropped from F-117 Nighthawks, the US air force's stealth fighter-bombers, military officials said. Some about 30 cruise missiles were launched from US warships.

"Early this morning on order we commenced Tomahawk operations against Iraq. Four cruisers and two submarines participated in these initial strikes." Rear Admiral John Kelly told reporters on the USS Abraham Lincoln. He said the ships involved were all American. In Baghdad, air raid sirens sounded after a series of explosions were heard at 0234 GMT (5.34am Baghdad time). The action began 90 minutes after the US Bush's deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq passed. The attack began in Baghdad with the sun just rising. A handful of cars were speeding through the streets of the Iraqi capital, but no pedestrians were visible on TV cameras beaming pictures from the city. The only sound heard was that of a mosque's muezzin making the call for the faithful to come to dawn Islamic prayers. The attempt to knock out the Iraqi leadership through a precise strike surprised analysts, who had expected the US-led campaign to begin with a massive aerial bombardment - the so-called "shock and awe" start that the Pentagon had talked about.

Bid to assassinate Saddam
Bush addresses nation
At 0315 GMT, two hours after the expiry of the 48-hour deadline George Bush had given to President Saddam to leave Iraq or face war, the US president went on television to inform the American people that the war had begun. He said: "Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. We will accept no outcome but victory." "We will accept no outcome but victory," Mr Bush said: "The dangers to our country and the world will be overcome." The first strikes were intended "to undermine Saddam's ability to wage war", Mr Bush said. "On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign"These are the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign." More than 35 countries were part of the coalition, the president said, and were "bearing the duty and sharing the honour" of serving in "our common defence".
President Bush said he wanted America and all the world to know that every effort would be made to "spare innocent citizens from harm" in Iraq. The Iraqi people would see the "honourable and decent spirit" of the American military, who are fighting against an enemy who know nothing of the conventions of war, he added.

"We will defend our freedom, we will defend others, and we will prevail."

Cruise attack to shock and awe
Saddam defiant
Three hours after the attack began, Iraqi state television broadcast what appeared to be a live address by President Saddam. "This is a crime against our dignified and great nation," he said in a short speech. The Iraqi leader pledged to defeat the American-led invasion. He told his people: "We have great hope that history will be on our side." "I pledge ... that we will resist the invaders. And, God willing, we will make them lose patience and they will never achieve their goals. They will be met by an everlasting defeat that they will never forget. Dressed in military uniform, wearing a black beret and reading from notes, President Saddam told Iraqis not to be afraid and promised that they would prevail. "Don't be afraid, don't fear anybody," urged President Saddam. "We have great hope that victory will be on our side ... injustice will be defeated by your swords."
His last words were "long live Palestine" - a clear sign that he was attempting to link the attack on Iraq to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Saddam pledges victory
Blair to meet key ministers
Tony Blair was scheduled to hold a war cabinet to discuss the military strikes on Iraq at 0830 GMT today, a spokeswoman said.
"The prime minister will meet key ministers at 8.30 this morning," the spokeswoman said, adding that a full cabinet meeting would be held later in the morning.
Commenting on the US strikes, a British military spokesman at Camp As Sayliyah, the US central command post in the Gulf, said the British "were not expecting the strike".
But a Downing Street spokesman said Tony Blair had been informed before the start of the strikes on Baghdad. "The prime minister was informed shortly after midnight [London time] that attacks on a limited number of command and control targets [were] being brought forward. "As regards the involvement of British forces, [Tony Blair] will set out the position in due course." Britain is the only country making a major military contribution to the US-led military operation, with some 45,000 British troops deployed in the Gulf. Mr Blair took the biggest gamble of his political career in backing military action against Iraq despite strong opposition within his party and the British public. On Tuesday he won a mandate from parliament for military action to disarm President Saddam.

Propaganda broadcast
As the attack began, American messages were broadcast on Iraqi airwaves saying: "This is the day you have been waiting for," according to Al-Jazeera TV. Meanwhile Iraqi satellite television, broadcasting after the attack began, said of the US troops: "It's an inferno that awaits them. Let them try their faltering luck and they shall meet what awaits them."

War on Iraq launched

US President George W Bush has launched war on Baghdad, vowing to "disarm Iraq and to free its people".

BBC New

Mr Bush delivered a live television address shortly after explosions rocked the Iraqi capital at 0534 local time (0234 GMT), signalling the start of the US-led campaign to topple Saddam Hussein. US military sources have told the BBC that five key members of the Iraqi regime, including Saddam Hussein, were targeted in the first attacks. It is not known whether the targets were hit and what damage might have been caused. Hours later, Iraqi television broadcast what it said was a live television address by Saddam Hussein, who called on the Iraqi people to resist the attacks.
We will accept no outcome but victory
US President George Bush
"I don't need to remind you what you should do to defend our country," the speaker said.
"Let the unbelievers go to hell... you will be victorious, Iraqi people," he said.

The BBC defence correspondent says the attack that was carried out was on a much smaller scale than had been expected for the opening of the conflict, and it had probably been mounted at short notice when US military planners spotted a good opportunistic target. Speaking from the Oval Office, President Bush said American and coalition forces were in the "early stages of military operations" and had struck "targets of military importance". He promised a "broad and concerted campaign" and said the US would prevail. But, he warned, the campaign could be "longer and more difficult than some predict". As dawn broke in Baghdad, anti-aircraft artillery peppered the sky as deep, heavy thuds were heard in the outskirts of the city.

'Limited thing'
The same target, in the east, is reported to have been hit three or four times. Republic of Iraq Radio in Baghdad said that "the evil ones, the enemies of God, the homeland and humanity, have committed the stupidity of aggression against our homeland and people".
Reports quoting American military officials said planes had struck "targets of opportunity" which were thought to be occupied by elements of the Iraqi leadership.

CRUISE MISSILES

US officials said Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter-bombers. French news agency AFP quoted a Pentagon official as saying the first strikes were "a limited thing - it ain't A-Day," referring to the planned massive air campaign. A BBC correspondent in Baghdad said anti-aircraft guns were in action for about 15 minutes, after which the city became quiet again. After the first strike, a large pall of black smoke was seen in the south of Baghdad.

HAVE YOUR SAY
No one enjoys war, but this is the right thing to do
Kara, USA

At about the same time as the strikes began, the US military appeared to take over a frequency of Iraqi radio with an Arabic-speaking presenter announcing: "This is the day we have been waiting for." Our correspondent in Baghdad says the timing of the attack is unusual - coming as it did in daylight. He says traffic remains normal and people are beginning to appear on the streets.

Deadline passes
The attack began after President Bush's 0100GMT deadline for Saddam Hussein to go into exile or face war expired. As the deadline approached, US-led combat troops in the Gulf - numbering about 150,000 - took up battle positions for an imminent invasion of Iraq.
ATTACK OPTIONS

A British military spokesman in Kuwait says no order has yet been given to the US and British troops who are waiting on the Iraqi border. As forces moved towards Iraq on Wednesday, 17 Iraqi soldiers surrendered to American troops on the Kuwaiti border.
With battle looming the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said his thoughts were with the ordinary people of Iraq as they faced the "disaster of war". He warned the US and UK that "under international law, the responsibility for protecting civilians in conflict falls on the belligerents". The Turkish Government, meanwhile, has asked parliament to allow US planes to use its air space, and it is expected to vote on the issue on Thursday.

Text of Bush's speech to the U.S.
NYT
Thursday, March 20, 2003

Following is a transcript of President Bush’s address to the nation from the Oval Office in Washington on the beginning of the war in Iraq as recorded by The New York Times.

My fellow citizens, at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.

On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war.
These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign. More than 35 countries are giving crucial support, from the use of naval and air bases to help with intelligence and logistics to the deployment of combat units. Every nation in this coalition has chosen to bear the duty and share the honor of serving in our common defense.

To all the men and women of the United States armed forces now in the Middle East, the peace of a troubled world and the hopes of an oppressed people now depend on you. That trust is well placed. The enemies you confront will come to know your skill and bravery. The people you liberate will witness the honorable and decent spirit of the American military.

In this conflict, America faces an enemy who has no regard for conventions of war or rules of morality. Saddam Hussein has placed Iraqi troops and equipment in civilian areas, attempting to use innocent men, women and children as shields for his own military, a final atrocity against his people.

I want Americans and all the world to know that coalition forces will make every effort to spare innocent civilians from harm. A campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as large as California could be longer and more difficult than some predict. And helping Iraqis achieve a united, stable and free country will require our sustained commitment.

We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization and for the religious faiths they practice. We have no ambition in Iraq except to remove a threat and and restore control of that country to its own people.

I know that the families of our military are praying that all those who serve will return safely and soon. Millions of Americans are praying with you for the safety of your loved ones and for the protection of the innocent. For your sacrifice, you have the gratitude and respect of the American people. And you can know that our forces will be coming home as soon as their work is done.

Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of firefighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities.

Now that conflict has come, the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force. And I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures. And we will accept no outcome but victory.

My fellow citizens, the dangers to our country and the world will be overcome. We will pass through this time of peril and carry on the work of peace. We will defend our freedom. We will bring freedom to others. And we will prevail.

May God bless our country and all who defend her.

U.S. Opens War With Strikes On Baghdad Aimed at Hussein

Iraqi Leader Defiant in TV Speech After Attack

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Thomas E. Ricks

Washington Post

KUWAIT CITY, March 20 (Thursday) -- U.S. forces opened an assault on Iraq early today with a barrage of 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles that slammed into three targets around Baghdad in an attempt to hit Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, military officials said. Radar-evading F-117A stealth aircraft also dropped 2,000-pound bombs in the first phase of an onslaught aimed at ending Hussein's rule. The attack appeared to be aimed at a residence in southern Baghdad where intelligence reports had pinpointed Hussein, officials said. Explosions and antiaircraft fire erupted in the Iraqi capital at dawn as armored vehicles of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division began moving into position to cross a sand berm into Iraq from Kuwait. Hussein appeared on Iraqi television hours after the attack and delivered a defiant call to Iraqis to resist an American invasion. The cruise missiles were fired from six Navy ships -- three cruisers, a destroyer and two submarines -- in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, Navy officials said. Rear Adm. John M. Kelly told reporters on the USS Abraham Lincoln that most of the missiles headed toward their targets, but one missile failed on launch. He said Operation Iraqi Freedom was underway as warplanes took off from the carrier. The cruise missile and bomb attack came as the U.S. and British forces began forming into "ground assault convoys" along the Iraqi-Kuwait border in preparation for the invasion. On Wednesday, U.S. forces had prepared the battlefield by intensifying bombing and stepping up reconnaissance operations inside Iraq. These operations were carried out by an unknown number of Special Operations troops and specialized Marine and Army units, U.S. defense officials said. They were accompanied by a series of U.S. airstrikes across the breadth of southern Iraq, from the Jordanian border in the west to near the Iranian border in the east, the U.S. Central Command announced. The airstrikes across the south continued early this morning, officials said. The Wednesday airstrikes hit nine targets, including two long-range artillery emplacements and one surface-to-surface missile system, deployed between the Kuwaiti border and the city of Basra, 35 miles to the north, the Central Command said. Those targets were hit because U.S. commanders worry that the U.S. invasion force assembling in northern Kuwait is at its maximum vulnerability to attack by chemical weapons.
A senior defense official characterized those airstrikes as one of the heaviest bombings conducted in the two "no-fly" zones in Iraq since the areas were created after the Persian Gulf War in 1991. They continued a pattern of using enforcement of the no-fly zones as a way to bomb targets whose destruction is deemed useful in preparing for the full-fledged U.S. push into Iraq that now seems imminent.

Most of a U.S. and British invasion force of more than 250,000 troops spent Wednesday forming into "ground assault convoys" along the Iraq-Kuwait border.

As the U.S. teams maneuvered on the northern side of the border, 17 Iraqi soldiers crossed to the south to surrender to Kuwaiti authorities and U.S. forces, U.S. military officials said. The officials said the soldiers, believed to be first Iraqis to surrender in the conflict, were handed over to Kuwaiti authorities. They were not deemed prisoners of war, the officials added, because the war has not formally begun.

A number of Iraqi military officers also arrived in the region of northern Iraq under Kurdish control and turned themselves in to Kurdish militia officers, according to Al Hayat, a London-based Arabic newspaper with a correspondent based in the zone. Similarly, a Pentagon official said Iraqi dissenters inside the country have begun speaking to U.S. intelligence personnel over open telephone lines about troop movements and possible locations of biological or chemical weapons caches.

While several U.S. military units were observed edging closer to the border, the most significant movement was made by the 3rd Infantry Division. Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, the division commander, ordered his 20,000 soldiers and 10,000 tanks, armored vehicles and fuel trucks to line up close to the border in snaking columns.

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, meanwhile, was poised to attack toward Basra, along with British marines and Army units accompanying them and assigned to occupy the city after the hostilities cease.

Across numerous military camps that have sprouted in the northern half of Kuwait, signs of the impending war could be seen through a swirling, sulfur-colored cloud of dust. At Camp New Jersey, about 100 officers with the 101st Airborne Division gathered for more than three hours in a large yellow tent to study a 500-square-foot, makeshift terrain map of southern Iraq.

The division has nearly 260 helicopters, and much of the discussion revolved around how best to position and refuel those forces. An intense sandstorm grounded attack helicopters Wednesday, however, and forced many soldiers to strap on plastic goggles. Flags tied to tank turrets whipped in the wind. But the wave of fine dust did little to hinder military activity across the Kuwaiti desert.

Engineers reinforced bunkers built from shipping containers and sandbags designed to protect troops from retaliatory Iraqi missile attacks. Ammunition was distributed to infantry and artillery units. "Breach lane marking" diagrams were taped on inside doors of portable toilets to encourage those who will drive across the border to memorize the configuration of lights and signals marking lanes through Iraqi minefields.

Soldiers packed their trucks and Humvees, lashing barracks bags and Meals Ready to Eat cases with such top-heavy ingenuity that one officer at Camp New Jersey compared his soldiers to the Clampetts, the rustic migrants in "The Beverly Hillbillies."

In the nearby Persian Gulf, combat pilots aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt were ordered to sleep during the day Wednesday to prepare for nighttime operations. British sailors were told their beer rations would stop, which many regarded as a sure sign of impending hostilities.

Rallying the U.S. troops, Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, who commands the Army's V Corps, exhorted them with a hand-held microphone Wednesday. " I know that no soldier really wants to go to war," he said. "We are left with no alternative."

The convergence of forces in what the military calls tactical assembly areas in northern Kuwait has provoked constant anxiety about keeping them untangled, both on the ground and in the air. At one bustling helicopter base, Col. Gregory P. Gass, commander of the 101st Aviation Brigade, said: "Right now, my biggest concern is this airfield. It's so crowded, so many aircraft here, that getting in and out is a nightmare."

Across Kuwait, the tiny desert emirate serving as a launch pad for war, signs of imminent military action were everywhere. Checkpoints appeared on once-open roads Wednesday afternoon. On the smooth paved highways, a convoy of Patriot missile trucks shared the road with the late-model luxury cars favored by Kuwaitis.

With the sound of military planes roaring overhead and the last civilian flights for Europe having left, some Kuwaitis made last-minute purchases of gas masks, lined up at ATMs and gas stations, and stocked up on bottled water. For many, the chief concern was Kuwait's preparedness to deal with the consequences of a possible chemical attack.
"I cannot say we are 100 percent fully prepared," said Sami Faraj, a military expert advising the Kuwait government on dealing with such an attack. "But we can report that we are ready."

The invasion force here is one-third smaller than that assembled a dozen years ago in the Persian Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from seven months of Iraqi occupation. The international coalition this time is also far smaller, limited mostly to a British force totaling more than 40,000 in the region, about 25,000 of whom are in Kuwait and will move into Iraq alongside U.S. Marines. Altogether, the land force gathered here consists of about 130,000 Americans, including just under 70,000 Marines, more than 20,000 soldiers from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, more than 20,000 from the 101st Airborne and others from a variety of support units.
Military officials have described an audacious war plan in recent weeks, including a fast push toward Baghdad. Led by the armor-endowed 3rd Infantry, the Army anticipates surging through several of the dozen freshly carved cuts in the sand berm separating northern Kuwait from Iraq as tens of thousands of Marines also roll forward.
An initial goal will be Basra and the principal Iraqi port, Umm Qasr at the head of the Persian Gulf. The Marines and the British are expected to take the lead in that assault, while other components of the U.S. ground force begin the race north.
The United States has engaged in a massive leaflet drop in recent days across southern Iraq, urging Iraqi soldiers to lay down their arms and Iraqi civilians to stay at home. Iraqi troops, one leaflet said, should "not risk their life and the life of their comrades," but instead should "leave now, go home, and learn, grow, prosper."
Air Force officials reported that for the first time coalition aircraft on Wednesday dropped leaflets providing specific "capitulation" instructions to Iraqi forces, describing what actions they could take to sit out the hostilities.
Another leaflet warned that Iraqi commanders "will be held accountable for noncompliance" if they use weapons of mass destruction. The top commander of U.S. ground forces, Army Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, told reporters that any Iraqi use of chemical weapons would draw a "dramatic" response. He did not say what it would be, but added: "It would be a hugely bad choice on the part of any Iraqi leader or commander to employ chemical weapons."
One Army commander put the odds of Iraq possessing chemical weapons at "80 to 90 percent," but there still is no consensus on whether those weapons are likely to be used, much less used effectively. Chemical decontamination sites will be established in southern Iraq to scrub tainted vehicles and equipment with a bleach solution. All soldiers involved in the attack will wear protective suits; if exposed and injured, they will be decontaminated before medical evacuation to avoid spreading the chemicals, said another officer.
Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the overall U.S. commander, traveled Wednesday to Saudi Arabia for talks in Riyadh with Crown Prince Abdullah and other senior Saudi officials, Jim Wilkinson, the Central Command spokesman, said from the command's regional headquarters in Qatar. Franks also met with Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, commander of the Air Force deployment at Prince Sultan air base, 60 miles southeast of Riyadh, for discussions about the war plan, Central Command officials said.
Plans have been drafted for military operations nearly two weeks into the ground invasion, according to one senior officer, with various contingencies for capturing Baghdad, its international airport and other high-value targets. Every building in the capital has been numbered by U.S. intelligence for purposes of targeting and to avoid unintended damage.
"But there's no telling which way this is going to go once we get contact with the enemy," the officer said.
Those designated by the Bush administration to be Iraq's postwar architects have set up shop in Kuwait, working out of a beachside resort here. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the military's director of postwar planning, arrived this week with a large team from the Pentagon. Also returning to Kuwait was Barbara Bodine, the former U.S. ambassador to Yemen who served as chargé d'affaires here during the 1990 Iraqi invasion and was stationed in Baghdad in the early 1980s. Officials expect her to return there as the chief U.S. civilian administrator for Baghdad and the surrounding region.
At Camp New Jersey, 31 Air Force weather officers attached to the 101st Airborne Division have begun tracking meteorological conditions in Baghdad and central Iraq, a subject of particular interest to helicopter pilots. But there were preparations also for casualties.
In the 101st alone, more than 550 medical professionals -- including 11 physicians, 25 physician's assistants and hundreds of medics -- have prepared for heavy combat by distributing 6,000 tourniquets and more than 10,000 pressure bandages. Medics have trained on four extraordinarily lifelike mannequins that cost $200,000 each and replicate human trauma symptoms ranging from a fluttering pulse to dilated eyes to massive hemorrhaging; programmed to accept 77 different medications, the dummies "die" if improperly treated.

Ricks reported from Washington. Staff writer Vernon Loeb in Washington and correspondents Rick Atkinson at Camp New Jersey, Kuwait, William Branigin near the Iraqi border, Susan B. Glasser in Kuwait City and Alan Sipress in Doha, Qatar, contributed to this report.

Coming US Iraq war stirs mixed memories in Balkans

By Zoran Radosavljevic and Shaban Buza

BELGRADE/PRISTINA, March 19 (Reuters) - The prospect of war on Iraq prompted conflicting reactions on Wednesday from Serbs and Albanians who underwent U.S.-led bombing in 1999. While Serbs expressed sympathy for the Iraqi people, Kosovo Albanians thought they would welcome the coming onslaught. ``I love America, I love Americans, they are the hope for people suffering around the world,'' said Kosovo Albanian pensioner Muhamet Delija. Delija described the imminent conflict as the third in four years ``to liberate people from dictatorship,'' citing the 1999 campaign to drive Serbian forces from Kosovo and the ouster of the Taliban from Afghanistan after the attacks on America in 2001. It could not have been viewed more differently in Belgrade.
``I really feel sorry for the Iraqis. I know how they're feeling, probably worried sick for their children,'' said Svetlana, walking her three-year old daughter through a city still scarred by the 11-week bombing in spring 1999. NATO launched the campaign against Serbia to halt a bloody crackdown by troops of the then-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic on an independence drive by guerrillas from the Muslim ethnic Albanian majority in its Kosovo province. The transatlantic alliance's largest military action in Europe, the bombing was aimed at military targets but killed around 500 civilians, described by NATO as collateral damage. Many Serbs were left with strongly anti-American sentiments, but it had the opposite effect on most Kosovo Albanians, even though they made up many of the victims of the bombing errors and suffered Serb retaliation while it went on.
Accusing Baghdad of developing weapons of mass destruction, U.S. President George W. Bush gave a 48-hour ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday night to leave the country or face war, despite strong anti-war sentiment around the world.
``The world is powerless and that's what embitters me,'' said Nada, 58-year-old Serbian financial adviser.

WORSE FOR IRAQIS
Belgrade pensioner Tonka said that she at least had enough electricity and food during the bombing. ``Iraqis will end up worse off than us. It is different and they have already been hungry for ten years,'' she said. Milan Petrovski, selling pirate videos in front of a shopping megastore, said America wanted to remove the leaders in Iraq and Serbia but did not care about the people. ``Now they are after (Saddam) Hussein, here they wanted Milosevic. And what good did we get -- he stepped down and our poverty only increased,'' the 54-year old said vehemently. Svetlana felt similarly. ``Americans are a sick nation. Their logic is: If someone is an obstacle, get him out of the way.'' Milosevic was ousted by a popular uprising in October 2000. A pro-Western coalition has begun economic reforms but has yet to improve living standards and suffered a major blow with the assassination of prime minister Zoran Djindjic last week. Kosovo Albanian student Arbnor Veliua, on the other hand, said his people had much to be thankful for. ``The Iraqi people will be grateful to the Americans,'' said the 22-year-old. When Milosevic finally agreed to let NATO troops into Kosovo, most of the Serbs living there either fled or were driven out by retaliatory attacks from local Albanians. NATO stayed and the province was placed under U.N. administration. ``Look at us,'' Veliua said. ``I can't imagine what Kosovo might look like today if we were still under a Serbian, Milosevic regime.''

Senior official held over Djindjic death

Police in Serbia say they have arrested the deputy public prosecutor, Milan Saraljic, during their continuing search for the killers of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

BBC News

Reports say the police allege Mr Saraljic has links with a criminal gang they suspect of being involved in the killing. He is the first senior official to be arrested over the case.
Earlier, the Serbian Government ordered 35 judges to retire, including seven from the Supreme Court. No specific allegations have been made against them. Restrictions on local media are also being enforced, with two dailies - Nacional and Dan - and the weekly Identitet banned on Tuesday allegedly for hindering the police investigation.
In a separate development, Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said police now knew the identities of two of the three people who carried out the assassination.

Third man
He added that they were members of the Zemun clan, an organised crime network with alleged links to supporters of former President Slobodan Milosevic which is said to have organised the killing.
The photo of the third man was published in several newspapers on Wednesday.
It has been reported that he may be a citizen of a neighbouring country. Mr Djindjic was shot by sniper fire outside the government headquarters in central Belgrade. The three are said to have carried out the attack from the second floor of a nearby building.

Political background
The BBC's Nick Hawton in Belgrade says the authorities are in the midst of a massive operation against those they believe have links to organised crime in Serbia. The new Prime Minister, Zoran Zivkovic, has said more than 750 people have been arrested in the police inquiry since Mr Djindjic's assassination last week. But he said in parliament on Tuesday that the assassination of Mr Djindjic had a clear political background and was not linked solely to the mafia. Under the emergency powers, people can be held for 30 days without charge, and without access to lawyers. Several members of the Zemun clan are still at large, including leader Milorad Lukovic, nicknamed Legija, a former paramilitary commander in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

Serbian police identify two out of three assassins of prime

By JOVANA GEC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ Serbia's government says it has identified two of three killers who gunned down Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic last week, and newspapers published photos Wednesday of a man police say was the third. Police asked Serbians to help identify him.
``We know where the shots came from. We have identified two out of three assassins,'' Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said late Tuesday. ``The third is on the photo.''
Djindjic, a pro-Western reformer, was killed by sniper bullets March 12 in front of the government headquarters in downtown Belgrade. His killers, believed to be from organized crime, remain at large.
Police say three men armed with a sniper gun and two handguns carried out the attack from the second floor of a nearby building.
In a massive hunt for the killers, police have detained hundreds of people, allegedly members and associates of an underworld clan believed to have masterminded the attack.
The government has also promised to clamp down on allies of former President Slobodan Milosevic in the police and judiciary, and on political parties with links to the criminal groups. Milosevic is on trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
As part of those efforts, the Serbian parliament was to vote later Wednesday to send 35 judges _ including seven Supreme Court justices _ into retirement.
Mihajlovic told state television the two alleged assassins whose identities are known belong to the Zemun Clan, a crime network that controls drug trafficking and other organized crime named after a Belgrade neighborhood. He did not give their names.
The group has close links with Milosevic loyalists in the police.
Also detained in the crackdown were two of Milosevic's former security chiefs and Svetlana Raznatovic, a popular folk singer who is the widow of slain warlord Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan.
The Zemun Clan leaders still remain at large: Milorad Lukovic-Legija, a paramilitary commander active in Milosevic's war campaigns, and clan members Dusan Spasojevic and Dejan Milenkovic.
Djindjic played a key role in toppling Milosevic in 2000 and later handed over the ousted president to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
He pledged to crack down on rampant organized crime and angered Serbian nationalists by pledging to extradite all war crimes fugitives. Many Serbs still regard the fugitives as heroes.
Struggling to stabilize Serbia after the assassination, parliament elected a new prime minister Tuesday while the hunt for assassins produced over 750 arrests.
Zoran Zivkovic, Djindjic's close associate and a top official in the ruling Democratic Party, was approved as the new prime minister in a 128-100 vote in the republic's 250-seat parliament.
He pledged to press ahead with his predecessor's pro-Western reforms and crack down on organized crime, which is believed to be behind Djindjic's killing last Wednesday.
``Djindjic's assassination also has political background and political instigators,'' Zivkovic was quoted as saying by the Glas daily Wednesday. ``The investigation will show who they are.''
Another reformist politician from the northern province of Vojvodina, Nenad Canak, called Wednesday for the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party to be banned. The Radicals' leader, Vojislav Seselj is facing trial at The Hague tribunal.
The United States and its allies were quick to promise continued support for Serbia after Djindjic's assassination, urging the new leadership to continue with the reformist policies.
The International Crisis Group, an independent think-tank based in Brussels, Belgium, warned in a report published Tuesday against any softening of the conditions that had been set for Serbia to fulfill before it can rejoin various European and world organizations.
``Belgrade must restart the long-stalled reform process and clean out the interlocking nexus, believed to be behind the killing, of organized crime, war criminals, and police and army officers hiding behind `nationalist-patriotic' slogans and organizations,'' the report said.

War of words in Serbia in hunt for PM's killers

BELGRADE, March 19 (Reuters) - Serbia's reformist leaders, eager to hunt down the killers of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, engaged in a war of words on Wednesday with radical nationalist parties they accused of having incited the murder.

In a late-night interview on Tuesday, Serbia's Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic told state television that Vojislav Seselj, founder of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party, was allied to a crime gang he said the authorities believe had ordered the murder to create chaos in impoverished Serbia.

``Seselj was the last political ally of the Zemun criminal gang,'' Mihajlovic said in his first public interview since Djindjic's murder on March 12. Earlier on Tuesday, heavily armed police evicted a l0cal branch of the Radical Party from its headquarters in a town north of Belgrade. Seselj's party issued a statement on Wednesday dismissing the accusations as ``lies and stupidities'' and an attempt to clamp down on political opponents. Seselj, who left last month for The Hague to stand trial at the U.N. tribunal for alleged war crimes during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, had openly denounced Djindjic's pro-Western policies. Another high official of the ruling DOS bloc said on Tuesday Seselj's radicals and a party founded by late warlord Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan were ``political inspirers of the assassination.'' ``We expect the authorities to investigate political circles in these two parties,'' said Slobodan Orlic. Branislav Pelevic, head of Arkans' Party of Serb Unity (SSJ), voiced outrage and demanded apologies from Orlic on Wednesday, calling his comments ``inaccurate, irresponsible and ill-meaning.'' He said ``no one from SSJ has ever mentioned dethroning the current authorities in a violent way.'' The hunt -- conducted under a state of emergency the cabinet proclaimed to give police wider powers -- has netted around 750 suspects from 155 criminal gangs. At least one gang was believed to have had links to security officials from the Slobodan Milosevic era. Police on Monday raided Arkan's Belgrade home, seizing a large quantity of arms and arresting his widow, folk music star Ceca. She was suspected of close links with several key suspects, including ex-special police commander Milorad Lukovic ``Legija,'' a ringleader of the notorious Zemun clan who remains at large.

Serbia: Mafia's Days Numbered?

The assassination of Zoran Djindjic could presage the end of organised crime in Serbia.

By Daniel Sunter in Belgrade (IWPR)

Over 750 people have been arrested since a state of emergency was declared in Serbia following the assassination of prime minister Zoran Djindjic last week. Slobodan Milosevic's former chief of state security, Jovica Stanisic, and the founder of the notorious Red Berets special police unit, Franko "Frenki" Simatovic, are among those detained in an operation, which could finally spell the end of organised crime in Serbia.
Zoran "Vuk" Vukojevic and Dragan "Prevara" Ninkovic, key members of the Zemun gang, which the police suspect of involvement in the assassination, were arrested on March 17 along with the popular folk singer Ceca, widow of slain crime boss Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic, who's alleged to have close links with the crime syndicate.
Arrests have been made across the republic with mafia suspects picked up in the towns of Uzice, Pozarevac, Zajecar, Jagodina as well as Novi Sad, in an attempt by the authorities to break up nationwide criminal rackets, a police source said.

"We are taking advantage of a unique opportunity to clean Serbia of not only the Zemun gang but also smaller but still dangerous criminal groups," the source said. "It's the most important action in the history of the Serbian police."
Over 750 hundred suspects have so far been apprehended in the police swoop, filling prisons the length and breadth of the country. The Serbian government have, meanwhile, revealed for the first time the extent of the Zemun gang's activities in the country, saying members were involved in drug smuggling, murders and kidnappings. "This state of emergency has been declared against criminals, not ordinary citizens," said deputy leader of Djindjic's Democratic Party, Zoran Zivkovic, who's tipped to be the next premier, told a press conference on March 16. "Personally I would like to keep the emergency period as short as possible (he suggested it could last until the end of April), but everything depends on how long the fight against organised crime takes."
Many commentators believe that an unspoken truce between the government and organised crime followed the ousting of Milosevic, after a number of gangs and security groups assisted the opposition. Left to their own devices, a conflict broke out between two powerful gangs, Surcin and Zemun, named after the Belgrade suburbs where they are based. Ultimately, the latter emerged on top. Recently, Djindjic had come to publicly acknowledge the power and influence of organised crime in Serbia, admitting that the drugs barons had enough money to afford better tapping and bugging devices than the police. In the middle of last year, the government started taking concrete steps to fight the mafia. A special prosecutor was appointed and a number of senior secret service members suspected of close ties with the Zemun gang were dismissed. In northern Serbia, one of the largest synthetic drugs factories in Europe, believed to have been a major source of income for the Serbian mafia, was destroyed. But before a major showdown could develop, the mafia decided to strike first. On March 12, unidentified assailants shot Djindjic in the courtyard of a Serbian government building. The finger was immediately pointed at the Zemun gang, led by Dusan "Siptar" Spasojevic and his ally the former chief of the Red Berets Milorad "Legija" Lukovic . Warrants have been issued for both their arrests. On March 14, the government ordered the demolition of a shopping centre and residential complex on Silerova Street, owned by Spasojevic. Large numbers of police were on hand as excavators and bulldozers tore into the complex, which stands in front of Spasojevic's luxurious villa and swimming pool. Hundreds of people looked on approvingly. During the weekend, the Belgrade authorities also closed down the weekly Identitet - believed to be financed by the Zemun gang - which two days prior to Djindjic's murder published a story suggesting that he would be targeted by accomplices of Serbs detained in The Hague. Public support for a crackdown has also been borne out in polls carried out by the press and electronic media over the last few days. Almost all of those questioned said they expected the government to capture Djindjic's assassins and crack down on organised crime. Djindjic's funeral, which took place in Belgrade on March 15, became an occasion for both the public and the international community to rally behind the crackdown. Over seventy foreign officials attended, including the chairman of the EU Council of Ministers, George Papandreou, the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, the leader of the British House of Commons, Robin Cook, and former US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, joined the funeral procession which was estimated to number some several hundred thousand people. Support was pledged in various ways, including a demand from Council of Europe secretary-general Walter Schwimmer that Serbia-Montenegro be admitted unconditionally to the organisation. Belgrade analysts believe that such an unprecedented level of international and domestic support gives the authorities a unique opportunity to stamp out one of the thorniest legacies of the Milosevic era once and for all.
Daniel Sunter is IWPR's Serbian project coordinator