Milosevic's Spymaster Arrested

Serb police arrested the man who served as secret service chief for Slobodan Milosevic, police said Saturday — a move that could signal Yugoslavia's new leaders are preparing to arrest Milosevic himself.

Rade Markovic's arrest was reported by the independent B92 Radio and confirmed by police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear what charges he faced.

The arrest was confirmed by Yugoslavia's interior minister, the Beta news agency reported.

"Rade Markovic was arrested together with three other persons," Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic told Beta. "All of them are his associates. no one is of a rank higher than his (Markovic's)."

The police source said the arrest was linked to a car crash in 1999 which slightly injured opposition leader Vuk Draskovic and killed four of his associates.

Markovic was fired last month when the new Serb government was elected. He was one of Milosevic's closest allies and was responsible for carrying out some of the former president's key policies.

Police officials said Markovic's arrest Friday was ordered by a Belgrade District prosecutor. B92 reported that former Belgrade police chief Branko Djuric was arrested along with Markovic.

Markovic has been informally accused of involvement in alleged assassinations of Milosevic opponents, including Slavko Curuvija, a newspaper publisher who had fiercely criticized Milosevic and was gunned down in 1999.

Former opposition leader Vuk Draskovic accused Markovic of orchestrating an attempt on his life in 1999, when Draskovic narrowly escaped death in a car crash that killed four other people.

"I hope it will not stop at this — that it will soon involve people who gave the orders," Draskovic said on BK television, reacting to the arrest and apparently referring to Milosevic, long his bitter enemy.

Markovic's arrest suggested the new, pro-democratic leaders in Yugoslavia, and its dominant republic Serbia, are stepping up legal action against allies of Milosevic, who they blame for widespread crime and corruption during his 13-year rule.

Serb Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic recently pledged that Milosevic — indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal — would soon be arrested. It remains unclear whether he would be extradited to the international court in the Netherlands or charged at home for war crimes or corruption, or possibly both.

Little is known of the secretive Markovic, believed to be in his early 50s. He was made Milosevic's secret service chief in 1998 after serving as of Serbia's deputy interior minister for public security. Before that he was the head of Belgrade's police department.