BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — The latest killing in a series of attacks against prominent figures here is a terrorist act, police said Wednesday, while government officials blamed foreign powers for the shooting.
Assailants shot and killed Zika Petrovic, the director of Yugoslavia's state airline and an ally of President Slobodan Milosevic, as he walked his dog late Tuesday near his home in downtown Belgrade.
"Undoubtedly, it is a terrorist act against a high-ranking business executive of Yugoslavia," said a police statement, carried by the state news agency Tanjug.
Serbia's justice minister accused foreign powers of being behind the killing. The neo-communist party of Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic, went even further, alleging Petrovic was targeted by NATO countries that "cowardly bombed our country" a year ago.
"That is the sort of terrorism that is being imported from abroad," Justice Minister Dragoljub Jankovic told B2-92 radio.
Witnesses and Belgrade's private media reported Petrovic was gunned down by unknown attackers using automatic weapons with silencers. The witnesses said they heard muffled shots shortly after 10 p.m. but did not see anyone.
The area was sealed off by police who refused to provide any details of the attack. Belgrade police stopped cars and checked identities of occupants throughout the night Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Petrovic, 62, was a member of Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party. He was not prominent in the party but known as a friend of the Milosevic family.
Petrovic, Yugoslav Airlines' director since 1992, had recently announced privatization and fleet modernization plans for the carrier, which has been in financial trouble for years because of international sanctions and flight bans imposed by Western countries.
Slobodan Cerovic, Serbia's government minister, said money was not the motive for the killing, which comes amid increasing lawlessness in the country and alleged murky business links involving government officials, the underworld and police.
Yugoslav Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic was gunned down in a Belgrade restaurant in February. Weeks earlier, Serbia's notorious warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, also known as Arkan, was killed in a hotel in the capital.
Last month, three underworld figures were fatally shot on the streets of Belgrade in two separate attacks.
In July, Police Col. Dragan Simic was killed, the fifth police official murdered in Belgrade in 1999.
Bulatovic was the highest-ranking victim among more than a dozen prominent figures killed during the past decade of Milosevic's rule — including politicians, journalists, police and underworld figures.
Immediately after the Bulatovic attack, Milosevic's government pledged an all-out campaign against terrorism, while the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party accused American, French or British intelligence agents of being behind the latest wave of killings.
After Tuesday's shooting, an opposition leader called for the resignation of Serbia's interior minister, Vlajko Stojiljkovic.
"It's absurd that there have never been more policemen in Serbia and never so little security," said Dragan Covic, the leader of Democratic Alternative.