Zoran Đinđic

Zoran Ðinđić (Latinized: Zoran Djindjic, and Serbian Cyrillic: Зоран Ђинђић; August 1, 1952 – March 12, 2003) was Prime Minister of Serbia, assassinated while holding this position. He is considered the main architect of the fall from power of Slobodan Milošević and one of the forerunners of Serbia's rapprochement with Western democracies.He was the mayor of Belgrade in 1997, and a longtime opposition politician and doctor of philosophy.

Đinđić was one of the thirteen original restorers of the modern Democratic Party, becoming its chairman in 1994. During the 1990s, he was one of the co-leaders of the opposition to the administration of Slobodan Milošević, becoming the Prime Minister of Serbia in 2001 after the overthrow of Milošević himself. As prime minister, he advocated for pro-democratic reforms and Serbia's integration into European structures.He was assassinated in 2003 by Zvezdan Jovanović, a former Special Forces operative with ties to the Zemun Clan.

Training

Djindjic was born in Bosanski Šamac, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina). He was the son of a Yugoslav People's Army officer, and from a very young age he moved with his family to Belgrade, where his father was stationed. He began to be interested in politics as a student at the School of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, already showing his opposition to the regime of Marshal Tito. Considered a reform socialist, Djindjic was imprisoned for several months after trying to establish, along with other Croatian and Slovene students, a non-communist student organization. After being released from prison, he went into exile in Germany, where he continued his studies with Jürgen Habermas in Frankfurt am Main. In 1979 he obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Konstanz.

Political career

In 1989, Djindjic returned to Yugoslavia, where, along with other Serbian intellectuals, writers and professors, he founded the Democratic Party on December 11, which was not officially recognized until July 22, 1990, when the multipartyism. He was elected to the Serbian Parliament in the December elections of that same year. He was appointed head of the party on January 29, 1994, at a time when he began his relationship with the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, with whom he had several meetings. Candidate for mayor of Belgrade in the November 1996 municipal elections, after an intense series of public protests against the rigging of the elections by President Slobodan Milošević, Djindjic was declared the winner, being the first non-communist mayor of the capital since World War II, but infighting within the party precipitated his departure from office in September 1997.

Djindjic next to Bill Gates.

The serious Kosovo crisis of 1999, and the harsh repression with which the federal government responded, which provoked the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia, was opportunely used by Djindjic to begin his campaign to overthrow the Milosevic regime, which included popular mobilizations and conversations with western governments. On January 10, 2000, he brought together representatives of 18 opposition parties that allied to form the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), of which Vojislav Kostunica would be a candidate. After the presidential elections on September 24, the DOS was quick to announce that they had won, but Milosevic refused to concede defeat and clung to power, leading to a large general mobilization, general strike, and civil disobedience. In the legislative elections of December 23, the DOS won a wide victory, and Djindjic was appointed Prime Minister of Serbia on January 25, 2001, becoming the first non-communist Serbian Head of Government since World War II.

On April 5, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sent the new Serbian government a request for the extradition of Milosevic for prosecution in The Hague on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. After harsh international pressure, Djindjic agreed to hand over the former president, which led to a serious conflict with Kostunica, who did not share the decision, and the final break between the two, which triggered a serious crisis within the Serbian party and government itself.

The next problem he had to tackle as prime minister was the fight against organized mafias that operated with total impunity and great power throughout the country, creating specific laws and bodies to combat them. Likewise, the situation in Kosovo became irreversible, and Djindjic's last proposal, anticipating his loss, was the partition of the province into two federations: one Albanian and the other Serbian, which was not taken into account by the high international representatives.

Murder

Map showing how Djindjic was killed.

Djindjic was killed at noon on March 12, 2003, shot in the back and another in the abdomen, apparently fired from a nearby building on his way to the government headquarters in Belgrade. According to the Serbian government, when he arrived at the emergency room he was not conscious and did not have a pulse. He had earned many enemies due to his pro-Western attitude, his reformist policies that had seen the unemployment rate rise to more than 30%, his arrest of Milosevic and sending him to The Hague and his fight against organized crime. The hitmen Zvezdan Jovanović, a former Kosovar paramilitary; as executioner, and Milorad Ulemek, nicknamed "Legija", former commander of the Serbian Volunteer Guard; as organizer, they were sentenced to 40 years in prison each as material authors of the murder. Lukovic was related to the powerful Zemun clan of the Serbian mafia, responsible for the death of Djindjic. Police investigation carried out after the assassination resulted in the death of two of the main leaders of the clan, when they resisted their arrest.

Natasa Micic, the acting president of Serbia, declared a state of emergency immediately after the assassination. Zoran Zivkovic was chosen by the Serbian Democratic Party as Djindjic's successor.

In the midst of enormous consternation, on March 15, 2003 Zoran Djindjic was buried in the New Belgrade Cemetery, attending his obsequies, held in the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava, 70 national delegations.

On February 10, 2012, the Spanish National Police arrested Luka Bojović, considered to be the organizer of the murder, and Vladimir Milisavljević, as the perpetrator of the murder, in Valencia.