BELGRADE, Feb 7 (Hina) - The Serbian ministry of internal affairs on Wednesday officially confirmed the death of a former interior minister of Serbia and later Yugoslavia, Zoran Sokolovic (63), saying in a statement that one of
Slobodan Milosevic's closest associates "most probably committed suicide." Sokolovic's body was discovered on Tuesday around 8 pm near his house in the village of Lepena near Knjazevac, some 200 kilometres south-east of Belgrade, in a locked Lada Niva. He was found holding a gun in his hand, his head shot. The Belgrade press speculate that Sokolovic suffered from cancer and intended to withdraw from the political scene even before the political changes in Yugoslavia took place. Since the eighth session of Serbian communists in 1987, Sokolovic had been in the narrowest political and state leadership of Serbia as one of the closest associates of Slobodan Milosevic, but he always kept a low profile.
BELGRADE, Feb 7 (Hina) - The Serbian ministry of internal affairs on
Wednesday officially confirmed the death of a former interior
minister of Serbia and later Yugoslavia, Zoran Sokolovic (63),
saying in a statement that one of Slobodan Milosevic's closest
associates "most probably committed suicide."
Sokolovic's body was discovered on Tuesday around 8 pm near his
house in the village of Lepena near Knjazevac, some 200 kilometres
south-east of Belgrade, in a locked Lada Niva. He was found holding
a gun in his hand, his head shot.
The Belgrade press speculate that Sokolovic suffered from cancer
and intended to withdraw from the political scene even before the
political changes in Yugoslavia took place.
Since the eighth session of Serbian communists in 1987, Sokolovic
had been in the narrowest political and state leadership of Serbia
as one of the closest associates of Slobodan Milosevic, but he
always kept a low profile.
Sokolovic took over the post of Serbia's interior minister in 1991
while Milosevic was the president of the republic and when the war
in Croatia started. He held the office until 1997, when he became
Yugoslavia's interior minister, the same time Milosevic became
Yugoslav president.
Sokolovic's police 'era' was full of wars, crime, political
executions, squaring of accounts with the Opposition and financial
scandals, all of which he managed to remain distanced from in the
public.
Sokolovic's suicide, or murder, coincides with the anniversary of
the murder of Yugoslav defence minister Pavle Bulatovic, who was
killed in barrage fire in a Belgrade restaurant on the night of
February 7 last year. Bulatovic's assassins have not been
discovered yet.
The former Yugoslav defence minister was killed only 20 days after
the murder of war crime suspect Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan.
(hina) sb rml