Slobodan Ikonic looks at the background of the murder of Zoran Todorovic - Kundak, the Belgrade political strong man, and close aide of the Milosevic family, in the October 30, 1997, issue of the Belgrade weekly "NIN".With the murder of Zoran Todorovic Kundak, it has been confirmed again that a quick business success, if not the political one, is in opposite proportion with the length of normal human life. A career politician (general secretary of JUL - the Yugoslav left), and even more successful businessman (owner of a number of private companies), was killed on October 24, in front of the "Beopetrol" building in Belgrade, a state company which he headed for only three months.
Based on the simplicity and preciseness of the execution of this crime, already branded in Belgrade as "Palermo style" , the well informed circles draw a conclusion that this is a well organized act, and that the killer will probably never be found. A number of persons have been killed under similar circumstances and almost in the exact same manner, and the killers are still unknown.
The death chain began with small time criminals, across to renowned "businessmen" , quickly to reach the deputy head of the police. The last three murders show a curious congruency - they concern the people from the closest surroundings of President Slobodan Milosevic.
Present at the quickly arranged and relatively modest funeral of Todorovic, almost the whole state and party top, lead by Milosevic . The funeral was on Saturday, and on Monday, the state press did not deal with this case anymore. This is quite curious, since the public statements of the JUL and SPS parti es of two days before that spoke of a "political assassination".
The crime was condemned by other political parties, but they did not go as far in its qualification. Does this mean that JUL knows something more than the police who has just begun its investigation, that is, that this act has been prepared abroad, in Bosnia, Montenegro or within the domestic opposition. Whatever they had in their mind, they did not take into consideration what kind of odium they are creating with such statements in the world, since they are presenting Serbia as an insecure state ruled by political terror. Experienced politicians and policemen place the main weight on the showdown in the non political circles in which Todorovic dealt, and these are the circles of the new big business. It is not doubtful that Todorovic had great political might which only made it easier for him to deal big.
Boza Spasic, the owner of the Serbian Investigation Agency, and a former high official of the State Security, has the information that Todorovic has been 'marked' for a while as a target.
How the official services did their work is seen from the fact that President Slobodan Milosevic really screamed at the Serbian interior minister Vlajko Stoiljkovic and head of the State security Jovica Stanisic, threatening that he will tear their heads off if they do not have concrete results in this investigation soon. They say that even stronger reactions are expected from his wife Mira Markovic when she gets back from India.
Despite of the expectations of President Milosevic and his wife, the experts are sceptical concerning the conclusion of this case. Predicting even stronger clash with the crime, former head of Belgrade police Marko Nicovic warns that Yugoslavia is still under a blockade, which will cause further poverty and even stronger attacks on material property.
Both Spasic and Nicovic are critical of the current situation in the police, tying it to poor leadership at its top. But even more interesting is Spasic's remark that for a while a list of 53 names of our politicians and businessmen designated for assassination is in circulation, and that exactly 22 persons from this list have been eliminated.
So far, there is no confirmation or denial from the official circles concerning this list, if one does not count the doubts expressed by the pensioned former police chief Radmilo Bogdanovic. But, it is evident that people in political and commercial circles are beefing up security around them.
Source: Belgrade weekly "NIN" , October 30, 1997
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