Military

DATE=03/13/03

TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=SERBIA/ASSASSINATION

NUMBER=6-12862

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

TELEPHONE=619-3335

INTRO: Newspapers around the globe are focusing their editorials on the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. We get some early reaction now, from V-O-A's ___________ in this week's World Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Most European dailies worry that Mr. Djindjic's death could lead to renewed instability in the Balkans, just as the world faces the prospect of a war in Iraq. We go first to Belgrade, the capital of what is now known as Serbia and Montenegro, where Politika suggests:

VOICE: The assassination . is the culmination of a trend of killings that have been going on in Belgrade for a long . time . The rule of crime and criminals has continued, and they have been attempting to be . masters of [life and] death and to be patriots at the same time. . Now, we are in a state of emergency, which does not bode happiness or tranquility. .

TEXT: Across the city, Vecernje Novosti says:

VOICE: No one can be safe or secure regarding one's life or regarding the state. The shots that killed the prime minister are shots on Serbia, not only because [Mr.] Djindjic was the personification of European values and the stability achieved by Serbia, . but also because the assassination of a democratically elected prime minister is de facto an attack on [Serbia's] . democratic institutions, [and] on its attempts to break with a violent past. .

TEXT: Moving on to neighboring Croatia, a former Yugoslav republic, we read in Zagreb's government-owned daily Vjesnik:

VOICE: Crime and politics have in the past 10 years gone hand-in-hand in Serbia. What politicians haven't been able to accomplish (publicly), mobsters have completed (secretly). Political ideology has served only as a screen for gaining power and money. .

TEXT: An equally upset Jutarnji list declares: "After [the]. death, Croatia no longer knows who its neighbor is, and what it can expect from this [neighbor].

In Macedonia, another former Yugoslav republic, the daily Skopje Makedonija Denes comments:

VOICE: Serbia is literally beheaded. After the two unsuccessful attempts to elect a president, that country is now left without a prime minister; A dangerous political situation for its stability.

TEXT: England's [London] Times laments:

VOICE: Serbia is now paying the price for a culture that has been dominated for years by vendettas and repression, and for a ruined economy that has impoverished an entire nation, and left many destitute and desperate. Not only Belgrade now fears for the future: Serbia's neighbors and the West are bracing themselves for prolonged uncertainty, a bitter power struggle and the possible outbreak of street violence as rival factions seek to assert their influence.

TEXT: In Germany's financial capital, the big Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes of Mr. Djindjic's goals:

VOICE: The prime minister knew that the requirements for an accession [to the E-U] could be met only in the long run. Nevertheless, he set himself and the world this goal, because goals are all the more attractive, the more distant they are, and because he rightfully feared that his real goal would be of no interest for anybody outside of Serbia's borders: the political, economic, and moral consolidation of Serbia.

TEXT: In Berlin, Die Welt makes reference to history, saying: "Shots fired in the Balkans have the tendency to make history. The killing of Serbia's prime minister . is . this kind [of event]." Turning southward, to Milan's Corriere della Sera, the big Italian daily writes on its front page:

VOICE: The assassination . shows that terrorism has many different faces, it shakes up our memory, and it recalls the never forgotten dangers that are smoldering on the other side of the Adriatic Sea.

TEXT: Russia's Vremya M-N in Moscow mourns him as a leader who "gave hope to the people" as he "renounced the Mafia-type model of government [Slobodan] Milosevic built . cynically for years." In Hungary's capital Budapest, Nepszabadsag reaches back into history for an analogy.

VOICE: What makes [this] case different from President Kennedy's . is that the Serbian man 'at least' received a warning. . It wasn't even a month ago that a truck with an Austrian [registration / license] plate attempted to hit [Mr.] Djindjic's car. The truck driver . happened to be a well-known mini-gangster from Belgrade.

TEXT: To Dublin now, where Ireland's leading Irish Independent talks of possible motives:

VOICE: His killers may have acted from a variety of motives, but their crime will assuredly not serve the interests of the region. Although [Mr.] Djindjic has been accused of corruption and dirty tricks, his record was on balance benign.

TEXT: Lastly, turning to our northern neighbor, we read in the big Toronto [Ontario] Globe And Mail, this Canadian reaction.

VOICE: The relative calm within the newly renamed state of Serbia and Montenegro ended in blood outside a government building in Belgrade yesterday. The assassination . plunged Serbia into an officially declared state of emergency and an unofficial state of shock and worry.

We hope the world sees this murder as more than just another in a line of troubles that have historically made the Balkans a powder keg. We hope its concern is for the country as it is today, for the reforms and constitutional rule taking shape, and the well-being of its people.

TEXT: The view of Toronto's Globe and Mail. Meanwhile, in Canada's capital, The Ottawa Citizen calls the killing:

VOICE: . a sad reminder of how much remains to be done to bring peace and democracy to many parts of the former Yugoslavia. . Bringing lasting peace to the Balkans was already difficult. Mr. Djindjic's death makes it even harder.

TEXT: That concludes this editorial sampling of early reaction to the assassination Wednesday of Serbia's prime minister.

NEB/ANG/TW