Zoran Djindjic is a fighter for the truth

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Zoran Djindjic is a Serbian politician and writer who was born on August 1, 1952 in the Yugoslav city of Bosanski Šamac and was killed on March 12, 2003 in Belgrade. From 2001 to 2003, Djindjic was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as the Chairman of the Democratic Party. He was married, his widow's name is Ruzica Djindjic, they have two children: son Luka and daughter Jovana.

Years of study

Zoran Djindjic was born in 1952 in the family of an officer in the city of Bosanski Šamac, located on the territory of modern Bosnia. He began his political activities while still a student at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade. Djindjic was sentenced to several months in prison for organizing an opposition group with other students from Croatia and Slovenia.

After his release from custody, with the assistance of the former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, he moved to Germany, where he continued his studies in Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg. In 1979, after transferring to the University of Constanta, he completed his doctoral dissertation in philosophy.

Return to Yugoslavia

In 1989, Zoran Djindjic returned to Yugoslavia, began teaching at the University of Novi Sad and founded the Democratic Party with other dissidents. In 1990, he became party chairman and was elected to the Serbian parliament the same year.

After the Serbian government annulled the results of local elections in November 1996, mass protests swept through the country, after which the victory of the opposition was still recognized. Djindjic is known as the first non-communist mayor of Belgrade since World War II. After conflicts with his allies over the nationalist Vuk Drašković, he was forced to resign as mayor of Belgrade at the end of September 1997.

During the Yugoslav presidential and parliamentary elections in September 2000, he served as campaign manager for Serbia's 18-party democratic opposition alliance. After the overthrow of the Milosevic regime, this alliance won a landslide victory in the elections to the Serbian parliament, which took place in December 2000.

Prime Minister of Serbia

In January 2001, Zoran Djindjic was elected prime minister of the union of countries (Serbia and Montenegro). Being a pro-Western politician, he constantly clashed both with representatives of the old communist nomenklatura and with the nationalists with whom he was forced to work together. Zoran Djindjic has made even more enemies becausefought corruption and organized crime in Serbia, also because of the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague war criminals tribunal in 2002, and because of the promise he made to Carla Del Ponte to send Ratko Mladic there.

Murder

12 March 2003 Zoran Djindjic was killed in Belgrade by sniper shots in the stomach and back. They fired from the window of a building located about 180 meters away. Djindjic's bodyguard was also badly wounded. When the Prime Minister was brought to the hospital, the pulse was no longer felt. After his death, a state of emergency was declared to give the executive more room to find those responsible. The assassination was suspected to have been ordered by Milosevic's supporters and the so-called Zemun mafia clan. A total of 7,000 people were arrested, of which 2,000 remained in detention for a long time.

Djindjic Zoran, whose assassination is believed to be related to his political activities, was found to have been shot dead by Zvezdan Jovanovic, a lieutenant colonel in the Serbian army and deputy commander of the Red Berets special forces unit. A little later, the murder weapon, a Heckler & Koch G3 rifle, was found; it was this physical evidence that allowed the court to reach a guilty verdict.

Litigation

At the end of 2003, the Belgrade court began proceedings against 13 suspects. On May 2, 2004, the court also facedalleged mastermind behind the assassination, Milorad Ulemek, commander of the Red Berets. He was detained near his own house, located in the suburbs of Belgrade. On June 3, 2006, a key witness in this case was found dead in Belgrade. Serbian media reported that in his testimony, which was not available to the public in 2004, he spoke of the involvement in the crime of Marko Milosevic, the son of the former president.

On May 22, 2007, Ulemek and Jovanovic were sentenced to 40 years in prison for "crimes against the constitutional order." According to the court, Ulemek acted as a coordinator, while Yovanovitch, who during the trial retracted his earlier confession, was the direct executor. Ten other defendants, five of whom had only an indirect connection to the murder, were sentenced to terms ranging from 8 to 35 years. It was not possible to find out who ordered the crime.

After an appeal to the Supreme Court of Serbia on December 29, 2008, the sentences for the three accomplices were reduced, but the sentences for the main perpetrators were confirmed in full, that is, 40 years in prison for both Milorad Ulemek (coordinator) and Zvezdan Jovanovic (shooter) Ulemek was a member of the "Tigers" detachment, which, under the leadership of the infamous police chief "Arkan", committed many crimes during the civil war in Yugoslavia. Later, he led the Red Berets police special unit, whichwas created under the direct control of President Slobodan Milosevic.

Other participants in the crime

Two years later, in June 2010, Sretko Kalinic and Milos Simovic were also caught in this murder.

In February 2011, Vladimir Milisavlievich was arrested in Valencia, Spain, driving a car in which the shooter fled the scene of the crime. At the time of his arrest, he had already been sentenced in absentia to 35 years in prison.

The grave of Zoran Djindjic is located in the central cemetery of Belgrade. Ten years after the assassination, the university and the city of Konstanz unveiled a plaque in honor of Djindjic.