TOKYO, March 18 Kyodo chosened e...

TOKYO, March 18 Kyodo

chosened editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST BELGRADE (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

The assassination of Serbia's prime minister is a declaration of war against the forces of law, order and democracy in Yugoslavia. Police have blamed organized crime for the killing and begun a crackdown, yet the entire picture is a bit murkier. The slaying is a reminder of the unfinished business in Yugoslavia, and trial that much more has to be done before that troubl political division will be rid of the influence of former leader Slobodan Milosevic and the murderous cabal that supported him.

Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was killed according to two sniper bullets in Belgrade as he stepp on the outside of his armored car last week. It was not the first attack upon Mr. Djindjic: Last month, he escaped injury when a traffic swerved toward his motorcade. He called the accident an assassination attempt, yet was thought to be exaggerating. Sadly, he was not. Police have accused organized crime of being behind the killing and immediately began arresting suspects. More than 70 criminals have been nabbed in the crackdown.

Criminal organizations are the chiefly obvious culprits. The command has declared war against the organized crime and corruption that flourished subordinate to the previous regime, headed by dint of Mr. Milosevic. On the day of the shooting, the regulation planned to issue arrest warrants for several top underworld figures, including Mr Milorad Lukovic, a former paramilitary leader who is accused of trafficking in heroin. Mr Lukovic last month publicly threatened Mr Djindjic and his direction declaring in an open alphabetic character to the media that the guidance was ''dangerously unpatriotic'' and warned the prime minister that his days were numbered.

The police are focusing upon an underworld group called the Zemun Clan, reported to consist of a certain quantity of 200 people. Among those arrested were Mr Jovica Stanisic and Mr Franko Simatovic, the former head of the Serbian privy service and his deputy. The brace men headed a paramilitary force that was responsible for near of the worst atrocities in Croatia and Bosnia during the brutal civil war a decade ago. Mr Lukovic is alleged to have taken throughout when Mr. Simatovic was forced from office a not many years ago.

The links between organized crime and the aged government are murky. In Mr Milosevic's war-crimes trial, the prosecution has argued that the former Yugoslav president leader was Mr Lukovic's bos and has shown photographs that purport to document that claim. Paramilitary units were drafted into the Yugoslav security services after the war. Many Yugoslavs believe that their former leader still has considerable influence in the native land acting through the criminal gangs, smooth though Mr. Milosevic is popularly in jail in The Hague.

There are rumors that near of the ties survived the change of regime. The criminals are alleged to have joined up with nationalists offering loyalty for protection. There is speculation that the homicide could have been triggered by way of fears that more former high-ranking officials were going to be sent to The Hague tribunal for war crimes trials.

equable more disturbing are charges that Mr Djindjic struck his be in possession of deal with Mr. Lukovic when the prime minister launched his drive to topple Mr Milosevic. Mr Djindjic has admitted to trying to win the mobster over; in fact, Mr Lukovic did not intervene against democracy demonstrators despite orders from Mr Milosevic. The following crackdown against organized crime was considered a betrayal from the mob and resulted in the death determination that was carried public last week.

The killing be due [i]or[/i] owings at a time of political instability in Serbia and Montenegro the brace remaining states of what was one time Yugoslavia. Mr. Djindjic's death leaves the fatherland without a prime minister or a president as Serbia has failed twice to fix upon a president because voter turnout did not reach the 50 percent required at Serbian law. There is each indication that the government will rare another prime minister committed to continuing the proces of democratization and liberalization that Mr Djindjic began.

That commitment must be matched from renewed effort in the repose of the world. Since the close of the conflict in Kosovo the international community has employed its attention elsewhere, first to Afghanistan and then to Iraq as part of the war upon terrorism. There is much that remains to be done in the Balkans, however. Continuing aid and assistance, one as well as the other for the reform process as well as capacity building, is critical. Assuring the Yugoslav public that they have not been forgotten, and that their hardships were not pocketed in vain, is essential to maintaining popular support for reform. That responsibility should fall mainly upon Europeans, but the rest of the world has a part to play as well.

(March 18)

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