Djindjić, Zoran, 1952–2003, Serbian politician, prime minister of Serbia (2001–3), grad. Univ of Belgrade (1974), Univ. of Konstanz (Ph.D., 1979). A student dissident in the 1970s, he was (1989) one of the founding members of the centrist Democratic party and became party leader in 1994. He opposed the regime of Slobodan Milošević during the 1990s, and joined two other opposition figures in leading three months of street demonstrations against him in 1996. In 1997 Djindjić was elected mayor of Belgrade, but he was soon voted out of office. He was instrumental in forcing Milošević from power in 2000. Subsequently, as prime minister, he sought to draw Serbia closer to the West, institute reforms, and begin efforts to bring Serbian war criminals to trial, but in 2003 he was assassinated. In 2007, 12 former paramilitary police officers and criminal gang members were convicted of his murder.
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