Belgrade, March 13, 2003 - As part of the operation of tracking down the assassins of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, the police have arrested 40 people in the last 24 hours, and are still searching intensively for other members of the group suspected of masterminding and committing this heinous terrorist act, said Head of the Belgrade Secretariat of Interior Milan Obradovic at a Serbian Ministry of Interior press conference on Thursday.
The persons arrested are directly or indirectly linked with the group suspected of murdering the Prime Minister. The majority of the group's members are still at large. The police have searched their apartments and are hunting for them across the territory of Serbia and Montenegro. The security forces have established connections with the police forces of neigbouring countries and from other European countries as well.
According to the available data, the assassination was carried out by three unidentified men, dressed in dark blue jump suits. "One of them had a sniper rifle, and the other two carried guns in their hands," said Obradovic. The assassins fired shots from the second floor of a building at 14 Admirala Geparta Street. After the assassination they were seen heading for Balkanska Street.
Obradovic said that Security and Intelligence Agency member Milan Veruovic was seriously wounded in the shooting. Immediately after the attack, police cordoned off the area around the Serbian government building, and soon afterwards closed all roads to Belgrade and border crossings between Serbia and Montenegro.
"Twenty minutes after the shooting, all members of the Belgrade police were in the streets ready to complete their only mission, and that was to arrest the assassins of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic," said Obradovic
The operation plan was agreed at a meeting of all security structures of Serbia and Montenegro - the Serbian Ministry of Interior, the Security and Intelligence Agency, the Army of Serbia and Montenegro - after which time the operation was launched.
Serbian Minister of Interior Dusan Mihajlovic said that police will do everything in their power to track down the perpetrators, and anyone who offers resistance to police will suffer serious consequences.
