Satan SLOBo Killed His Patron
Barry Marjanovich
April 26, 2001
Report: Wife Believes Ex - Serbian President Dead
BELGRADE (Reuters) - The wife of missing former Serbian President Ivan
Stambolic was quoted Thursday as saying she no longer believed he was still
alive and accused his successor Slobodan Milosevic of being behind his
disappearance.
``I've lost hope as it has been so long since my husband disappeared,''
Katarina Stambolic told daily Glas Javnosti in an interview.
She said she was convinced Milosevic and his once powerful wife ordered the
kidnapping of Stambolic seven months ago, shortly before the former Yugoslav
president's ouster in a popular uprising last October.
``Milosevic and his wife Mirjana Markovic must have abducted and removed my
husband,'' she said.
``They feared him because he knew too much about them. Their disturbed
mental structure, whose true image surfaced on the night of Milosevic's
arrest, prompted them to get rid of my husband as someone too dangerous for
them,'' she said.
Milosevic was arrested on April 1 on abuse of power charges after a 36-hour
armed standoff between diehard supporters and the reformers who toppled him
after 13 turbulent years in power. He has staunchly denied any wrongdoing in
office.
Stambolic, a former president of Serbia in the old communist Yugoslavia, was
instrumental in Milosevic's rise to power in the late 1980s. He was forced
out of politics when his former protege turned against him.
He vanished while jogging near his home in Belgrade on August 25, shortly
before last September's presidential election which two weeks later led to
the ouster of Milosevic.
Milosevic's opponents accused Milosevic's secret police of kidnapping
Stambolic, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
``People around me believe he is alive but I keep telling them they have no
idea who they've been dealing with all this time,'' Katarina Stambolic said.
Milosevic's opponents often blamed the secret police for mysterious murders
and other crime that characterized the final years of his rule.