Serb Politician Sees Foul Play in Fatal Crash

Serbian opposition leader Vuk Draskovic said a car crash Sunday that he survived but that killed his brother-in-law and three bodyguards was an assassination attempt.

Draskovic, leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, suffered only minor injuries when the car he was traveling in collided with a truck coming from the opposite direction that suddenly swerved into the wrong side of the road.

“It is an assassination attempt. Those who organized it should consider what will happen to them,” Draskovic told Studio B television. He did not elaborate.

“By the grace of God, I was the only one left alive,” he said in a broken voice.

Serbian Renewal Movement lawyer Borivoje Borovic earlier told Studio B that police were searching for the driver of the truck involved in the crash, which occurred near the municipality of Lazarevac, about 35 miles southwest of central Belgrade, the capital of both Yugoslavia and Serbia, its main republic. Draskovic, 52, leads one wing of the divided opposition.

He served briefly in the Yugoslav government as deputy prime minister. He was fired in April because of policy disagreements during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 11-week air war against Yugoslavia.

The Serbian Renewal Movement has so far refused to join daily demonstrations against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic organized by the Alliance for Change, the other wing of the opposition.

Draskovic has described the street rallies as a waste of time, warning that they could lead to civil war and saying instead that Milosevic should be defeated at the ballot box.

Veselin Boskovic, director of the board for municipal building sites in Belgrade and Draskovic’s brother-in-law, was among the four who died.