(19 Jan 2000) Voice and effects
VOICED BY Katherine Bonner
A memorial service was held by members of the Serbian Unity Party in Belgrade on Wednesday for notorious warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan.
Arkan, who was shot dead at the Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday. led the Serb paramilitary group, the Tigers, during the Bosnian and Croatian wars.
He was indicted for war crimes by the International Court of Justice in the Hague for allegedly instigating a series of atrocities between 1992 and 1995.
Speculation has now been growing about whether the Serbian government played a role in the attack.
00 02 Family, friends and members of his football club filed in silently to the memorial service for one of Serbia's most notorious war lords.
00 11 Among the mourners were Arkan's wife, the famous Serbian folk singer and his son.
00 17 As some people paid their last respects to him, Arkan remains a controversial figure in death as he was in life.
25 He was indicted by the international war crimes tribunal for atrocities committed by his militia - the dreaded Tigers - during wars in Croatia and Bosnia.
00 34 He was also believed to be close to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's security services.
00 40 There's speculation the government was involved in Arkan's death to prevent him from testifying at the Hague against Milosevic and other Serb leaders such as Radovan Karadzic.
00 50 But others dismiss such rumours saying that Arkan had many enemies.
00 56 SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well he did have a particular status in this society, a kind of celebrity, so they met him at the opening, premiere etc. And at the same time he was understood as someone who was very close to the regime but also the kind of guy who was controlling organised crime in this city. Therefore there are many different sources of possible hatred against him."
SUPER CAPTION: Goran Svilanovic, Alliance for Change representative
01 23 Both state-run and independent Serbian papers have said Arkan knew his killer, shaking hands and kissing him moments before the assailant opened fire.
But with no official police account of the killing, the theories will continue
long after he is buried later this week.
vision ends 01 40

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