The Iraq war is obscuring news of an ongoing sweep-up of anybody and everybody connected with organized crime and the killing of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in Serbia. A friend who just moved back from Belgrade told me his feeling is that overall, the fall-out from the assassination might in fact be positive, since the government seems to be using all legal (and many illegal) means to crack down on the mob and accelerate reform. Among the items posted by the Institute for War and Peace reporting:
- Two of the most wanted mob leaders, and the man thought to have ordered the Djindjic's assassination, were killed in a gun battle last night. This isn't quite "a Jack Ruby" since they were killed by police resisting arrest, not while in custody and not by their own associates. Daily Telegraph also reports on this. (Thanks to Dan for the heads-up on this.)
- The remains of Serbia's ex-president -- thought to have been eliminated by Milosevic henchmen three years ago, executed and dumped into a pit -- have been found in Vojvodina, the part of northern Serbia bordering Hungary.
- Milica Gajic-Milosevic, wife of Slobodan Milosevic's son Marko, arrested yesterday.

This excellent UPI feature reports, "Many among the under-30 group say they are contemplating following in the steps of their predecessors during the barren decade under Milosevic and settle abroad for good." Great! Just what Serbia needs -- another brain-drain exodus. The feature also reports on the government's clean up of the judiciary. "Nearly 80 other judges have been suspended and a district judge was arrested last week on charges of corruption and connections with the criminals." (For background on the need to purge the Serbia judiciary, see below.)

But the greatest stir, by far, occasioned the March 17 arrest of "turbo-folk" phenomenon Svetlana "Ceca" Raznatovic, widow of the notorious warlord "Arkan." I once had dinner with a Croatian guy who claimed, in all earnestness, that turbo-folk (imagine the nastiest Euro-trash with an over-the-top, mocking Muslim/Albanian touch) essentially caused the break-up of Yugoslavia. Here is a fascinating article about Ceca from the NY Times in January. She's still in custody.

Dime punditry: People have been searching for months for an historical comparison to post-war Iraq (Japan, Germany), but oddly enough, the parallel is right in front of our noses: Serbia, times 100. Most people (not everybody) will be glad Saddam's gone, but they'll despise the US for the invasion and sneer at our blinkered sanctimoniousness for a long time to come.