Car of Kostunica Deputy torched - Otpor activists suspect

BELGRADE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Unknown attackers set ablaze the car of a leading Serbian reformist politician who said earlier this week he was receiving death threats, officials said on Saturday.

Slobodan Vuksanovic, deputy leader of the Movement for Democratic Serbia party which forms part of the ruling coalition, was not in his vehicle when the incident occurred around 10 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Friday evening in Belgrade.

"The car was set on fire and some eyewitnesses said they had seen someone throw something into it," said Ivan Djordjevic, chief of cabinet for Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic.

"We know there was no explosion but the vehicle was burnt," Djordjevic told Reuters.

Vuksanovic had said earlier this week he was receiving telephone death threats warning him to stop cooperating with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.

Serbian television stations showed Interior Minister Mihajlovic and the Serbia's chief of police inspecting the scene of Friday night's blaze.

Djordjevic said an investigation was under way and an official statement would be issued later on Saturday.

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I was really shocked to learn about this. I actually met this guy Vuksanovic at my sister's wedding 12 years ago. He was then in early twenties, very good-looking and intelligent. He belonged to Djindjic's party until a year ago, when he split. Now it seems Djindjic is out to get him if he decides to come under Kostunica's wing.

Vuksanovich has nothing to do with Koshtunitsa. He's not his 'deputy'. OTPOR has nothing to do with this, either. This is either the tobacco mafia or Djindjic's stormtroopers. Vuksanovich has been criticizing Djindjic's criminal behaviour re. the cigarettes. The smuggling has been practically legalized -- the smugglers get 130,000 Deutschemarks per truck. That money should've been going to Serbia's budget but Djindjic's crooks came up with a decree where the state takes 5,000 DEM per truck and their mafia buddies take 130K.

What they do is they import the cigarettes via northern Serbia and they say "It's going to Kosovo". Djindjic has signed a deal with the UNMIK where the UNMIK doesn't pay duty. They pay a token fee. Then the cigs come to Kosovo (only this ridiculously low fee is paid) and are immediately returned to central Serbia and sold.

That's how you get cigarettes duty-free. The revenues are HUGE. Otherwise, they'd have to pay some 150,000 DM per truck (~20t).

It's all Djindjic's and that socialist scum Korach's doing.

OUT WITH THE SCUM!

No, it has nothing to do with Otpor. And it's not their MO, cause they never did any violent acts.

Some could argue that it's Djindjic's dirty work. After all Vuksanovic was his deputy in Democratic Party, and they're not exactly friends. In 1999. Djindjic gave promise that if Milosevic's not out by the end of the year, he'll resign as president of DP. Guess what happened? Vuksanovic left DP after Djindjic refused to resign, and joined Perisic and his newly-formed MDS (Movement for Democratic Serbia).

But, such action would be too obvious, cause everyone knows that Vuksanovic doesn't like Djindjic much (and that's an understatement). Frankly, I believe it has been done by someone who wants to create even more animosity within DOS, and my bet is on Seselj and his Radical Party.

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