Milosevic camp denies ambush link

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Supporters of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic have rejected accusations they were involved in an ambush of the Serbian interior minister.

Gunmen fired at Dusan Mihajlovic's motorcade as he was being driven in the centre of Belgrade near the Czech embassy about 1am (0000 GMT) on Friday.

Police called the attack, in which no one was injured, an attempted assassination and Yugoslavia's interior minister accused Milosevic supporters.

Last month a masked gunman shot and wounded the driver of Serbia's new head of state security.

Milosevic loyalists rejected involvement in the Mihajlovic ambush, accusing the new authorities of failing to control crime.

"The new government has failed in its promise to fight crime and prevent murders," said the Yugoslav Left party run by Milosevic's wife Mirjana Markovic.

"The only thing it is doing is fulfilling the tasks of its (Western) masters."

Police Sergeant Dragan Pantic said the assailants shot at Mihajlovic's convoy.

His bodyguards returned fire and his driver swerved to evade the gunmen's cars and sped away.

Four people have been arrested and an investigation was launched against them for "endangering public safety and illegal possession of arms," Pantic said.

Mihajlovic, who is in charge of the police in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic, said he could not confirm that it was an assassination attempt, but he would not rule out the possibility.

Mihajlovic recently said his department was preparing to arrest Milosevic, who is also wanted by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in connection with alleged atrocities in Kosovo.

Mihajlovic said he has received a number of anonymous death threats "from the so-called patriots of this country who warned that all of us who want to put the former president on trial will be sentenced to death."

Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said the attack was a warning from supporters of Milosevic.

"The establishment of a state ruled by law is the biggest blow to those who have for years had huge illegal profits in criminal dealings which were linked to the state leadership," Zivkovic told independent Belgrade Radio B-92.

"These reactions are certainly messages to us to abandon this job and allow crime and corruption to flourish in Serbia but this will certainly not happen," he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

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