Zoran Djindjic is a Serbian politician and writer who was born on August 1, 1952 in the Yugoslav city of Bosanski amac 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 is named Ruzhitsa Dzhindzhich, they have two children: son Luka and daughter Jovana.
Years of study
Zoran Dzhindzhich was born in 1952 in the family of an officer in the city of Bosanski Chamac, located on the territory of modern Bosnia. He began his political activity when he was a student at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. Djindzic was sentenced to several months in prison for having organized an opposition group together with other students from Croatia and Slovenia.
After being released from custody, he, with the assistance of former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, moved to Germany, where he continued his studies in Frankfurt and in Heidelberg. In 1979, after moving to the University of Constance, he finished work on a doctoral dissertation in philosophy.
Return to Yugoslavia
In 1989, Zoran Djindjic returned to Yugoslavia, began working as a teacher at the University of Novi Sad and, together with other dissidents, founded the Democratic Party. In 1990, he became party chairman and was elected to the Serbian parliament the same year.
After the Serbian government annulled the results of the 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 Draskovic in late September 1997, he was forced to resign as Belgrade mayor.
During the Yugoslav presidential and parliamentary elections in September 2000, he served as the campaign leader for the Democratic Opposition Alliance of Serbia, consisting of 18 parties. After the overthrow of the Milosevic regime, this union won an unconditional 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 nomenclature and with the nationalists with whom he was forced to work together. Zoran Djindjic made even more enemies because he fought corruption and organized crime in Serbia, also because of the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague tribunal for war criminals in 2002 and because of the promise to send Ratko Mladic, who he gave to Carla Del Ponte.
Murder
On March 12, 2003, Zoran Djindjic was killed in Belgrade by sniper shots in the stomach and back. They shot from the window of a building located about 180 meters away. Dzhindzhich’s bodyguard was also seriously injured. 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 provide the executive with more opportunities to search for those responsible. It was suspected that the murder was ordered by supporters of Milosevic and the so-called mafia clan Zemun. A total of 7,000 people were arrested, of whom 2,000 remained in custody for a long time.
It was found that Djindjic Zoran, whose murder was most likely due to his political activities, was shot dead by Zvezdan Jovanovic, a lieutenant colonel in the Serbian army and deputy commander of the Red Berets special forces. A little later, a murder weapon was found, the Heckler & Koch G3 rifle; it was this material evidence that allowed the court to reach a guilty verdict.
Trial
At the end of 2003, a Belgrade court began proceedings against 13 suspects. On May 2, 2004, the alleged backstage leader of the murder, Milorad Ulemek, the commander of the Red Berets, also faced trial. He was detained near his own house, located in a suburb 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 in 2004 was inaccessible to the public, he talked about the involvement in the crime of Marco 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 played the role of a coordinator, while Jovanovic, who during the trial refused his earlier confession, was the direct executor. Ten other defendants, five of whom were only indirectly related to the murder, were sentenced to between 8 and 35 years. It was not possible to find out who is the customer of the crime.
After an appeal to the Supreme Court of Serbia on December 29, 2008, the sentences for the three accomplices were commuted, but the sentences for the main culprits were fully confirmed, that is, 40 years in prison for both Milorad Ulemeka (coordinator) and Zvezdan Jovanovic (shooter) . Ulemek was a member of the Tigers, who, under the leadership of the infamous police chief Arkan, committed many crimes during the civil war in Yugoslavia. Later, he led the police special unit "Red Berets", which was created under the direct control of President Slobodan Milosevic.
Other participants in the crime
Two years later, in June 2010, they caught Sretko Kalinich and Milos Simovic, also involved in this murder.
In February 2011, Vladimir Milisavlievich was arrested in Valencia, Spain, driving a car in which the shooter fled the scene. At the time of his arrest, he was already 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 murder, the University and the city of Konstanz opened a memorial plaque in honor of Djindzic.