Suspected war criminal killed in Belgrade

BELGRADE, Jan 16: Assassins have slain not notorious Serb paramilitary leader and war crimes suspect Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic in a Belgrade hotel, reports Reuters.

Political opponents of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic said they thought Arkan's killers, who fired at least 38 bullets at close range in the hotel lobby on Saturday afternoon, would never be identified.

A paramilitary who struck fear into hearts across the Balkans, Arkan was also a convicted bank robber and a former politician believed to have once had closed ties to Milosevic's ruling circle.

A surgeon from the city's Emergency Centre said he had been hit at least three times in the face and was dead on arrival at the centre.

"He was hit in the mouth, eye and temple. The nature of the wounds indicates he was shot at close range," the surgeon, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

"Two others died, one of them of stomach injuries."

Arkan had been living in fear.

"What can I do? I'm trying to survive," he told a friend 10 days ago who asked how he was.

The friend, who requested anonymity, told Reuters he had met him by chance in central Belgrade after long time and was surprised he did not have as many bodyguards around as usual.

The official news agency Tanjug said Arkan was attacked by masked gunmen, but a police source said they were not masked. Police found 38 bullet casings on the floor at the scene, where two other people were also mortally wounded.

Britain and the United States said they took no satisfaction from Arkan's murder. He was indicted in 1997 by the Hague-base International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes against humanity, including alleged atrocities in Croatia in 1991 and in the 1992-95 Bosnian war. He denied the charges.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said he was not surprised that Arkan had died violently.

"I regret his death because it prevents us doing justice to the victims of his atrocities by seeing him in the dock at the Hague tribunal," he said in London.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a statement during a visit to Panama: "We take no satisfaction in Arkan's murder and would have wanted him to stand trial in The Hague for his crimes."

Mirza Hajric, adviser to Bosnian Muslim presidency member Alija Izetbegovic, also said, Arkan's violent death was no surprise and that his units had committed war crimes across the Balkans.