BELGRADE, April 16 (Hina) - A former Yugoslav Army chief-of-staff, recently arrested in an investigation into the murder of Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic, told the police Slobodan Milosevic had ordered him to send an army helicopter
to Montenegro to help evacuate a group of people who tried to assassinate politician Vuk Draskovic in Budva in 2000.
BELGRADE, April 16 (Hina) - A former Yugoslav Army chief-of-staff,
recently arrested in an investigation into the murder of Serbian
Premier Zoran Djindjic, told the police Slobodan Milosevic had
ordered him to send an army helicopter to Montenegro to help
evacuate a group of people who tried to assassinate politician Vuk
Draskovic in Budva in 2000. #L#
Nebojsa Pavkovic said Milosevic had given him a verbal order in the
presence of a former head of Serbia's State Security Service (SDB),
Rade Markovic, Serbian government officials told reporters on
Wednesday.
Dusan Spasojevic aka Siptar and Vladimir Jovanovic aka Japanac
participated in the attempt to assassinate Draskovic, at the time
the leader of the strongest opposition party, the Serb Revival
Movement. Spasojevic, one of the suspects in Djindjic's slaying,
recently killed in a police operation, had obtained documents
proving that at the time of the attempt on Draskovic's life he was
undergoing medical treatment and was not in Budva. There has been no
information on whether Jovanovic was arrested in the ongoing
investigation.
Former SDB head Rade Markovic was recently sentenced to seven years
in prison for participating in an attempt on Draskovic's life on a
highway near Belgrade in late 1999, when four senior officials of
Draskovic's party were killed in a staged car accident. Draskovic
and his attorneys claim that the court has never explained the role
of Milorad Lukovic Legija, the principal suspect in Djindjic's
slaying still at large, in that accident. Lukovic was allegedly
recently seen at the scene of the crime on the highway.
(hina) rml