[Shadow_Group] Fw: Serbian president survives assassination attempt

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http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=628d8f5b-86ee-4214-ab7c-eecb8d76b178<http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=628d8f5b-86ee-4214-ab7c-eecb8d76b178>

Serbian president survives assassination attempt 

Dusan Stojanovic, National Post-Canadian Press, 12/01/04

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- Serbia's pro-western President Boris Tadic survived an apparent assassination attempt when a car repeatedly tried to crash into his motorcade, his press office said Wednesday. 

The incident occurred late Tuesday in downtown Belgrade when the driver of a black Audi made several attempts to crash his car into Tadic's but was cut off by a security vehicle, the press office said. 

Tadic was unhurt, and the Audi fled the scene in Belgrade's wealthy Dedinje district after the security car rammed it. The president's security had noticed that the car was following the motorcade for a while before the incident, officials said. 

Tadic's agenda for Wednesday was unaffected and he held a scheduled meeting with British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon. 

Afterward, he told reporters that "the situation requires a serious investigation." 

"This state has serious problems," he said. 

Tadic, who was elected Serbian president in June, also criticized the police for a slow start to the investigation, saying, "I still have not received a report" about the incident. 

"This is not about me, this is about whether our institutions are working or not," the president said. "All institutions must do their job and this applies to the government." 

The government is led by Tadic's political foe, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. 

Another pro-western official, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, was assassinated in March 2003 outside his downtown Belgrade office in a sniper attack. Just weeks before the fatal shooting, Djindjic survived another attempt on his life in which a truck tried to crash into his motorcade, also in Belgrade. 

After the killing, Tadic took over leadership of the pro-western Democratic Party. 

"History is being repeated in a most terrible way," said Bojan Pajtic, vice-president of the party, noting the similarity to events leading up to Djindjic's slaying. 

"Serbia must not allow that the March 2003 (assassination) happen again," he said. It would mean a loss of last hope that this country would ever join the European family of nations." 

The European Union foreign policy and security chief, Javier Solana, issued a statement expressing "sympathy and support" to Tadic after the attack, whose "perpetrators ... work against the interests of Serbia and of the Serbian people in Europe." 

Several paramilitary and gang figures associated with former president Slobodan Milosevic are standing trial in the Djindjic case, accused of killing the reformist prime minister in order to bring Milosevic's allies back to power in Serbia. 

Considered the most popular Serbian politician, Tadic is hated by nationalists who oppose his pro-western policies and calls for more than a dozen Serb war crimes suspects to be extradited to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. 

Tadic's Democratic Party led the rebellion that toppled Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia, Serbia-Montenegro's predecessor, in October 2000, and extradited him for trial to The Hague a year later.


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"The practice of discernment is part of higher consciousness. Discernment is not just a step up from judgement. In life's curriculum, it is the opposite of judgement. Through judgement a man reveals what he needs to confront and learn. Through discernment, one reveals what he has mastered."   Quote from: Love Without End, by Glenda Green
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