Serbs Arrest Former Chief of Milosevic’s Secret Police

The man who served as chief of the secret police for Slobodan Milosevic was arrested, authorities said Saturday--a move that could signal that Yugoslavia’s new leaders are preparing to arrest the former president.

Rade Markovic’s arrest was reported by the independent B-92 Radio and confirmed by police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear what charges he faced.

Markovic was fired last month when the new Serbian government was elected.

He was one of Milosevic’s closest allies and was responsible for carrying out some of the former president’s key policies.

Police officials said Markovic’s arrest Friday was ordered by a Belgrade District prosecutor. B-92 reported that Branko Djuric, Belgrade’s former police chief, was arrested along with Markovic.

Markovic has been informally accused of involvement in the killing of Milosevic opponents, including Slavko Curuvija, a newspaper publisher who had fiercely criticized Milosevic and was gunned down in 1999.

Former opposition leader Vuk Draskovic accused Markovic of orchestrating an attempt on his life in 1999, when Draskovic narrowly escaped death in a car crash that killed four people.

Markovic’s arrest suggested that the new, pro-democratic leaders in Yugoslavia and its dominant republic, Serbia, are stepping up legal action against allies of Milosevic, whom they blame for widespread crime and corruption during his 13-year rule.

Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic recently pledged that Milosevic--indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague--would soon be arrested.

It remains unclear whether he would be extradited to the international court in the Netherlands or charged at home for war crimes or corruption, or possibly both.

Little is known of the secretive Markovic, believed to be in his early 50s.

He was made Milosevic’s secret police chief in 1998 after serving as Serbia’s deputy interior minister for public security. Before that, he was the head of Belgrade’s police department.