Serb warlord shot dead

Arkan, the notorious Serb warlord whose forces brought terror to the Balkans throughout the 1990s, was shot dead yesterday in a Belgrade hotel.

Zeljko Raznatovic - his real name - was hit by masked gunmen who burst into the lobby of the Intercontinental hotel. A bullet from a Heckler and Koch submachine gun hit his eye then shattered his brain. One of his body guards, identified as Momcilo Mandic, was killed and another person was seriously injured. The group was sitting in a sectioned-off part of the lobby when the assailants, who subsequently escaped, launched their attack.

The doctor at Belgrade's emergency hospital said he had seen Arkan shortly after he was rushed to the facility, and, "all vital functions had stopped".

One of Serbia's richest men, Arkan was wanted for bank robberies in Western Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. In the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia that began in 1991, his "Tigers" militia became known for extreme savagery.

Thought to be in his 40s, the former ice cream seller was indicted for war crimes in Bosnia in September 1997, but the indictment was kept under wraps until the Nato air campaign in the Balkans began in March last year.

His paramilitary forces have also been accused of involvement in atrocities during the Croatian war of independence of the early 1990s, including the massacre of 250 men taken from a hospital in Vukovar.

Arkan's forces sided with Serb rebels in both wars. The War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague made public his indictment in an apparent attempt to dissuade him from joining the Serb crackdown in Kosovo. Though evidence now shows his Tigers took part in atrocities there. It was in April last year that the then Hague War Crimes Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour issued the indictment against him. "This is not a fresh indictment but one kept under seal" she said.

Arkan and his wife Ceca, a popular Serbian folk singer, were frequent nightly visitors to Belgrade's Hyatt Hotel during the bombing, apparently fearing to stay at home and risk becoming a Nato target.

"To the rest of the world," wrote former American Balkan envoy Richard Holbrooke in his book To End A War, "Arkan was a racist fanatic run amok, but many Serbs regarded him as a hero. His private army, the Tigers, had committed some of the war's worst atrocities." During the Nato bombardment of Yugoslavia, which ended with the withdrawal of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's forces from Kosovo, Arkan frequently warned the Atlantic Alliance against a land invasion, threatening fierce resistance if that happened.

He said: "I will sell the plastic bags, because you will need a lot of plastic bags for your soldiers. That will be good business."

One man who claimed Arkan as "a friend" was Italian businessman Giovanni Di Stefano who caused controversy last year when he launched abortive bids to buy into Dundee and Celtic football clubs. Di Stefano was arrested in Italy last November after a warrant was issued following investigations into alleged fraudulent trading. Extradition proceedings to Britain are currently under way.

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.

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