[ALBSA-Info] SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT ARKAN DIES AFTER SHOOTING

[Endri Leno]

January 15, 2000
Web posted at: 2:23 p.m. EST (1923 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Indicted Serb war-crimes
suspect Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, died
Saturday after he was shot in Belgrade, according to
two independent news agencies from Belgrade, Beta and
Studio B. 

Arkan died after he was shot at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) in
the left eye while leaving the restaurant of the      
        Intercontinental Hotel. Arkan's bodyguard was
shot and killed and another person seriously injured
when the assailants opened fire. Arkan was taken to a
nearby hospital where he died. 

A source in the hotel, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said the gunmen escaped. 

Arkan, a longtime ally of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, was indicted for war crimes in Bosnia in
September 1997 but the indictment was kept under wraps
until the NATO air campaign in the Balkans began in
March. His paramilitary forces also have been accused
of involvement in atrocities during the Croatian war,
which broke out in 1991. 

Arkan's forces sided with Serb rebels in both wars,
but he denied involvement in war crimes. Full details
of the charges have not been released, but British
Defense
Secretary George Robertson has said Arkan was indicted
in the 1991 massacre of 250 men taken from a hospital
in Vukovar during Croatia's war for independence from
Yugoslavia. Reputedly one of Serbia's richest men,
Arkan was wanted for bank robberies in Western Europe
in the 1970s and 1980s. He also was believed to have
amassed wealth from war profiteering. 
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