Serbia

By Massimo Calabresi/Vienna

As the Yugoslav President grudgingly reduces his troops in Kosovo, SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC is taking it out at home on foes and friends alike, closing a radio station and five newspapers and purging Belgrade University of professors. But in a big surprise last week, he sacked his ruthless spymaster, JOVICA STANISIC, whose loyalists fear he may be blamed by Milosevic for the "ethnic cleansing" of much of Bosnia. That explains why, after the ouster, Stanisic said Milosevic bore primary responsibility for the work of the secret police. Why did Milosevic dump a man who may finger him for war crimes? Internal reasons: Milosevic's wife, the retrograde communist MIRA MARKOVIC, and his fascist Vice Premier, VOJISLAV SESELJ, had it in for Stanisic. Yet with Serbs increasingly unhappy with Milosevic, the Butcher of the Balkans may rue the day he let his hatchet man go.

--By Massimo Calabresi/Vienna