News reports coming out say he's dead.

-- anti-terror (one@less.monster), January 15, 2000

Answers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_605000/605172.stm

Saturday, 15 January, 2000, 18:41 GMT

Serbian warlord shot dead

The Serbian paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, has been shot and killed at Belgrade's Intercontinental hotel, according to hospital sources.

He was reportedly shot in the eye and rushed to hospital.

One of his bodyguards, Momcilo Mandic, is also believed to have died in the shooting.

Reports say that the gunmen escaped.

Last year, the UN's international criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia indicted Arkan for war crimes committed during the Bosnian war.

The indictment, issued in 1997, was kept under wraps until the Nato air campaign against Yugoslavia began in March.

Underworld

Arkan led the notorious Tigers, which were part of the Serb Volunteer Force operating in Bosnia and Croatia.

The Tigers are alleged to have committed atrocities in Kosovo last year, but Arkan has denied this.

Reputedly one of Serbia's richest men, Arkan is wanted for bank robberies in western Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. He also is believed to have amassed wealth from war profiteering.

The BBC correspondent in Belgrade, Jacky Rowland, says assassination is a common tool for settling disputes in the Serbian underworld, in which Arkan was a powerful figure.

-- but is it true (never@know.intrigue), January 15, 2000.

Aren't there still US soldiers over there with U.N. trying to keep peace?

How might this affect the region?

-- lance (lancepb@pbedu.com), January 15, 2000.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000115/ts/yugoslavia_arkan_4.html

Saturday January 15 1:52 PM ET

Serb Warlord Arkan Killed in Belgrade Shootout

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serb warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, who is wanted by an international tribunal for alleged war crimes, was shot dead on Saturday, the independent news agency Beta said.

``Arkan, who was shot and seriously wounded in the Intercontinental Hotel this evening, died on the way to the hospital,'' the Belgrade agency said, quoting doctors from Belgrade Emergency Center.

Arkan, 47, was wounded in the left eye, an eyewitness told Reuters after the shooting. The man said Arkan's friend, known as Manda, was shot dead, while another man and a woman -- ''apparently passers-by'' -- were wounded.

``He (Arkan) was alive when he was taken to a car that drove him to a hospital,'' the eyewitness said.

Arkan was indicted in 1997 by the U.N. war crimes court in the Hague for crimes against humanity, including alleged atrocities in Croatia in 1991 and in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war.

He was the leader of the paramilitary unit called ''Tigers,'' who took part in both the Croatian and Bosnian wars. He is also wanted by the international police body Interpol for a series of bank robberies across western Europe.

-- on breaking news (Net@Reuters.net), January 15, 2000.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/01/15/arkan.shooting.02/index.htm l

Serb war crimes suspect Arkan dies after shooting

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Indicted Serb war-crimes suspect Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, died Saturday after he was shot in Belgrade, according to two independent news agencies from Belgrade, Beta and Studio B.

Arkan died after he was shot at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) in the left eye while entering the Intercontinental Hotel to get his hair cut at the hotel barber shop. Arkan's bodyguard also was shot and killed and another person seriously injured when the assailants opened fire.

-- serb unrest (march@street.mad), January 15, 2000.

Headlined on Drudge now, has interview with Arkan who sounds psychotic.

-- h (h@h.h), January 15, 2000.

Serb Paramilitary Leader Said Dead

By MISHA SAVIC Associated Press Writer

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Zeljko Raznatovic, the notorious Serb paramilitary leader better known as Arkan, was shot and killed Saturday in a Belgrade hotel, reports said.

Arkan was shot in the head and rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery, said police at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A doctor at Belgrade's emergency hospital said he had seen Arkan and that ``all vital functions had stopped.'' One policeman also said that he had died, either en route or after arrival at the hospital. The doctor and the police officer both asked their names not be used.

Two independent news outlets, Studio B television and the Beta news agency, also said he was dead.

-- covert op (machine@gun.ratatat), January 15, 2000.

---Arkan was one of the main reasons that the king and the british bankers pal tony bland went into kosovo, it had nothing to do with "massacres", it had a LOT to do with who controlled the multi quadzillion dollar asia through turkey/alabania drug smuggling and money laundering routes. Western bankers were using the turk and albanian gangs, including the switched overnight narco terrorist KLA to our allies in that war. Arkan was grabbing huge chunks of that traffic, with other serbs and kgb russian mafia types. Every SINGLE overall detail of this was on the state departments ftp servers and websites, of course the specific names weren't mentioned, just "western bankers" notably in germany and england, but the info flat out disappeared or gave you a 403 "forbidden" about two days before the serious aerial bombing over there began. Come to your own conclusions there. International drugs and laundering of money is conducted at THE very highest levels of finance and dotmils and dot spooks. that's why it remains illegal, the giganto profits involved, and also the political control it gives governments with the paramilitary/police/alledged justice system. They-the various cartels- war with each other all the time, and the ones in the west use the various western armies as enforcers. The poor soldiers have to just follow orders, no matter what hat or armband of the week they are forced to wear. Sad. Sad for the innocent civilians over there, too. My opinion, your research may vary, of course. Even the ultra liberal press has had to seriously back down on that "massacres" story that was the primary public reason for the "war".

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 15, 2000.

If any of you want to check it out, there's a radio station in Belgrade that you can find at:

http://www.freeb92.net/index.html

Sometimes you can actually hear it (they play wonderful jazz).

I was listening to it the night that they got busted. Their govt. broke into their studio, confiscated all the equipment, and then told them they had to report for work on Monday, on the state-run radio.

the real B92 radio then began broadcasting on the internet, from Holland (they said).

-- Jazz Fan (jazzfan@Freeb92.net), January 15, 2000.

http://www.lineone.net/newswire/cgi-bin/nw6.cgi/skynews/uk/story/2000/ 1/c--2000-1-15-1n4.html

ARKAN 'WAS LIVING ON THE EDGE'

Saturday, January 15, 2000 19:57

Reaction to the shooting of notorious Serbian paramilitary leader Arkan was swift tonight.

Former BBC correspondent Martin Bell said that Arkan  full name Zeljko Raznatovic  had been "living on the edge for several years".

Arkan was shot in the head and taken to hospital for emergency surgery following an attack in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel, Belgrade. Unofficial reports emerging from Belgrade said he had died.

Mr Bell, now Independent MP for Tatton, said: "I know nothing about the circumstances of the attack.

"All I can tell you is that he has been living on the edge for several years and this is actually the second time he has been wounded. "He was hit on the hand when his militia was capturing a Croat village in 1991."

Mr Bell, who reported extensively from the former Yugoslavia, went on: "He is a former bank robber, he has been held prisoner by Croats on gun-running charges  he has been living in very dangerous circumstances."Later the independent Beta news agency in Belgrade reported that Arkan had died.

Mr Bell met Arkan on several occasions, and retained a regard for his charisma.

In a magazine article in The Mail on Sunday last year, he said: "I dare to consider Zeljko Raznatovic, even now, a friend."

In the article the MP reflected: "Somehow I doubt that Arkan will die in his bed."

Bob Stewart, former Nato commander in Bosnia, suggested that Arkan's attackers were "mafia".

"It doesn't seem very much of a surprise that someone has decided to do what I would almost call the decent thing, but that's not fair," he told Sky News.

"I would like to have seen this man come before an international war crimes tribunal to answer for various crimes he is alleged to have done.

"But I am pretty clear he has done a lot of criminal activity and is a very big war criminal."

Mr Stewart, speaking before confirmation that Arkan had died, said people had been "lining up" to give evidence against him.

"He is fundamentally responsible for moving into areas in Bosnia with his so-called Tigers... and then kill as many people as possible, women, children whatever. "This man is a very serious enemy for the human race."

The Foreign Office said Arkan's death had been confirmed by the UK's representative in Belgrade.

In a statement, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said: "Arkan lived violently so it is therefore no surprise that he died violently. "He and his followers were in the frontline of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, enriching themselves whilst they persecuted the defenceless.

"I regret his death because it prevents us doing justice to the victims of his atrocities by seeing him in the dock of at The Hague war crimes tribunal. "Arkan was head of a mercenary unit which stands accused of torture, murder and rape on a sickening scale during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

War crime investigators have dossiers on Arkan from the Bosnian conflict describing him as "like a possessed man", calling him a "butcher" and claiming he laughed as he massacred civilians.

One of the allegations against him was that he slaughtered 2,000 Muslims in a sports centre with machine-guns and hand-guns.

His notorious militia, the Tigers, destroyed the Croatian town of Vukovar at the beginning of the conflict in 1991 and later massacred civilians in eastern Bosnia.

Arkan amassed enormous wealth through his business dealings and militia activities over the past decade.

Before the Bosnian war, he was a powerful figure in the Serbian underworld and is reputed to have carried out state-sponsored assassinations.

In 1975, at just 25, the Belgrade press named him as one of the most dangerous criminals in Europe.

He was wanted in six European countries.

Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium sentenced him to prison terms for bank robberies but he escaped from a courtroom in Sweden and a jail in the Netherlands.

After the Bosnian war ended in 1995 he returned to business and at one time owned the soccer club Obilic in Belgrade.

The football team rose from obscurity to become one of the biggest teams in Yugoslav football, beating the formerly all-powerful Red Star Belgrade in 1998 to win the league.

Arkan later passed on the chairmanship of the club to his wife Ceca, a folk singer.

Arkan always denied involvement in atrocities in Kosovo despite being implicated in a number of massacres.

He was alleged to have recruited his "Tigers" from jails and the worst sectors of society and sanctioning some of the worst cases of ethnic cleansing.

The Tigers reputedly drove around the Kosovo capital in German cars, raping and killing at will.

-- no spot (on@the.ark), January 15, 2000.

I should read more closely. I thought that Arkan was short for Arkansas. I immediately went outside and looked south to see if there was smoke. Serbia? The Serbians have sentenced themselves to generations of grief. Makes no difference if it was one person murdered or a million. They will be the poor folks living next to their wealthy neighbors. They made their choice and will have to live with it. Not an opinion, just a fact.

Best wishes

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), January 15, 2000.

A shredder maintenance man told me several years ago that he toyed with those from Arkansas by deliberately mispronouncing the state Arkansas by saying Ar-KAN-sas. This got the Kansans riled up.

Will continue, did you know about this?

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), January 15, 2000.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000115/ts/yugoslavia_arkan_8.html

Saturday January 15 7:42 PM ET

Serb Paramilitary Arkan Meets Violent Death

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Assassins have slain notorious Serb paramilitary leader and war crimes suspect Zeljko ``Arkan'' Raznatovic in a Belgrade hotel.

Political opponents of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic said they thought Arkan's killers, who fired at least 38 bullets at close range in the hotel lobby on Saturday afternoon, would never be identified.

A paramilitary who struck fear into hearts across the Balkans, Arkan was also a convicted bank robber and a former politician believed to have once had close ties to Milosevic's ruling circle.

A surgeon from the city's Emergency Center said he had been hit at least three times in the face and was dead on arrival at the center.

``He was hit in the mouth, eye and temple. The nature of the wounds indicates he was shot at close range,'' the surgeon, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

``Two others died, one of them of stomach injuries.''

Arkan had been living in fear.

``What can I do? I'm trying to survive,'' he told a friend 10 days ago who asked how he was.

The friend, who requested anonymity, told Reuters he had met him by chance in central Belgrade after long time and was surprised he did not have as many bodyguards around as usual.

The official news agency Tanjug said Arkan was attacked by masked gunmen, but a police source said they were not masked. Police found 38 bullet casings on the floor at the scene, where two other people were also mortally wounded.

``Someone Pulling Strings''
``Violent death has become an everyday thing and such a murder would be solved quickly only if the police and judiciary functioned normally. Someone is pulling the strings and deciding every morning who will be next.''

One of the dead was Milenko Mandic or Manda, a friend of Arkan's from the Belgrade underworld. The other was called Dragan Garic, Tanjug said, quoting investigating judge Miodrag Paunovic.

An eyewitness said the scene was very confused.

``From what I saw, there was only one gunman, but there was a lot of shooting,'' the eyewitness told Reuters.

Officials, who cordoned off the lobby, tried to remove Arkan's Chevrolet four-wheel drive which was parked outside but could not lift it because of the heavy armor plating.

Arkan himself was said to have always been armed, but it seems he did not have a chance to use his weapon. It was not clear where his bodyguards were at the time of the shooting.

-- h (h@h.h), January 15, 2000.