Red Berets chief accused of pulling trigger on Djindjic

The suspected assassin of Zoran Djindjic, Serbia's Prime Minister, has been arrested, the government said yesterday. The man alleged to have pulled the trigger was named as Zvezdan Jovanovic, an assistant commander of the Special Operations Unit, also known as the Red Berets.

The unit has ties to organised crime and Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia now on trial for war crimes in The Hague. He used it in the Balkan wars.

Zoran Zivkovic, the new Serbian Prime Minister, said Mr Jovanovic was arrested on Monday, with an accomplice, Sasa Pejakovic, also a Red Beret. The suspected Heckler & Koch G3 sniper rifle used to kill Mr Djindjic on 12 March as he stepped out of his armoured car in front of a government building has been recovered.

Dusan Maricic, the commander of the Special Operations Unit – which the government has now decided to disband – is also under arrest because of his links to the Zemun clan, an organised crime ring. Police blamed the Zemun clan for the assassination of Mr Djindjic. One of its leaders, Milorad Lukovic, known as Legija, is a former commander of the Red Berets. Mr Lukovic and a dozen of the clan's leaders are still at large.

Mr Lukovic was also in the notorious "Tigers" paramilitary units of the late Zeljko Raznatovic, also known as Arkan, which operated in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia in the 1990s. In 1996, he joined the Red Berets, created by the Serbian secret police, but left the post shortly after Mr Milosevic fell from power in 2000.

The largest manhunt in the modern history of Serbia, set off after the killing of Mr Djindjic, has led to the arrest of more than 3,000 people. A thousand are still in custody. Several organised crime rings have been broken up.

Television stations have broadcast footage showing the seizure of enormous arms caches, drugs and military and police equipment, and the shelters regularly used by the gangsters. A metallic silver Audi A8, described by witnesses in dozens of mob-style assassinations, was retrieved in a garage in New Belgrade two days ago. It had the fingerprints of Mr Lukovic and his closest aides, police said.

Milan Sarajlic, The Serbian deputy state prosecutor, was arrested last week and admitted being on the payroll of the Zemun clan for years.

Mr Djindjic had declared war on the organised crime that flourished during Mr Milosevic's turbulent decade in power. His stance angered the gangsters and he had been the target of a previous assassination attempt in February.