BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Serb police on Monday detained 20 activists of the opposition movement Otpor in connection with the weekend murder of a senior government figure, state news agency Tanjug said.
Tanjug had earlier reported that police issued arrest warrants for two other Otpor (resistance) members allegedly linked with Saturday's shooting of Bosko Perosevic, a senior official of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's party.Perosevic, also head of the government in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province, was shot dead by a lone gunman in the provincial capital of Novi Sad on Saturday.
Police arrested the assassin on the spot and said he was an activist of Otpor and of Serbia's main opposition party, the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO). Both Otpor and SPO have denied the man had anything to do with them.
Tanjug, quoting police, said warrants were issued for Stanko Lazendic, 27, and Milos Gagic, 28, who are "in flight and believed to be in Bosnia."
Later on Monday it reported that police had detained 20 people from the area of Novi Sad and other Vojvodina towns, saying they were suspected of being connected with the crime.
Tanjug said they were all members of Otpor, branded by authorities as a "fascist-terrorist" organization.
Some 7,000 people, including senior government officials, attended Perosevic's funeral in Novi Sad on Monday amid high security. Before the funeral, his body lay in state for three hours, and people waited in long lines to pay their respects.
Novi Sad police said they were "taking all steps to find all those who incited and inspired the heinous act," Tanjug said.
Up to 25,000 opposition supporters rallied in the Yugoslav capital on Monday, accusing the authorities of seeking civil war and showing their support for Otpor and its activists.
Zoran Djindjic, the leader of the Democratic Party, said Otpor was "the most threatened political organization in the country."
An Otpor activist acknowledged that the two wanted men were members of the organization but said they had not been in the town for a month. He confirmed they were in Bosnia.
"The police statement is nonsense. . . . They are visiting their families in the Bosnian Serb republic," Vladimir Jesic said.