Murder of dissident watched by police

When Branka Prpa read a secret-service surveillance report detailing the last day she spent with her assassinated companion - an outspoken critic of Slobodan Milosevic - it was like going through a nightmare all over again.

When Branka Prpa read a secret-service surveillance report detailing the last day she spent with her assassinated companion - an outspoken critic of Slobodan Milosevic - it was like going through a nightmare all over again.

The document describes the moves of Ms Prpa and Slavko Curuvija on 11 April, 1999 until moments before the prominent Serbian media figure fell in a spray of gunfire. "When I read the document I was astonished because I read things that only I could know and which I had not told anyone," Ms Prpa said. "It reveals the mechanisms of a monster state."

The report was apparently leaked by a secret-service officer loyal to the new Yugoslav pro-democracy leadership.

Police have not named Mr Curuvija's killers or published details of the investigation. A series of other killings has also remained unsolved, triggering speculation that the former dictatorial regime was behind them. "For years we have had the feeling some dark things are happening within the secret service," said Natasa Kandic, of the Humanitarian Law Centre, which published the report. "This is the start of revealing those secrets." ( AP)