SARAJEVO (AFP) - Tributes poured in yesterday for Alija Izetbegovic, the “hero” of the Bosnian Muslim resistance during the brutal war of the 1990s, after his death here due to heart failure at the age of 78. But while the former president, who died on Sunday, was generally praised for his courage in the face of overwhelming opposition, others said he left a country bitterly divided along ethnic lines. “Mr Izetbegovic was a very courageous leader for his people. Under difficult circumstances in the Balkans, he played an important role in ending the war in his country,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson paid tribute to a “courageous statesman,” adding that he “led the resistance from the besieged capital Sarajevo and worked hard to preserve the unity and independence of the country.” But while Bosnian Muslims mourned the departure of an “honorable leader,” Bosnian Serbs regretted that in death he had “escaped justice.”

BELGRADE (AP) - Seven months after Zoran Djindjic, Serbia’s reformist prime minister, was assassinated, his chief bodyguard is questioning the official version of events and suggesting there may have been a cover-up. Milan Veruovic claimed in an interview aired yesterday on B-92 radio that the investigation was inconclusive and flawed. “I don’t think it was a criminal gang” that killed Djindjic, Veruovic said. “The motive was in his political work and his idea about Serbia.” Serbian state prosecutor Djordje Ostojic dismissed Veruovic’s claims as “speculation.”

Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase accepted the resignation of three of his main ministers yesterday in a bid to convince the EU that his country is working hard to weed out endemic corruption. Nastase told a press conference the three ministers had resigned due to corruption scandals. The resignation of Minister for European Integration Hildegard Puwak, Health Minister Mircea Beuran and the secretary general of the government, Serban Mihailescu, comes at a time when Brussels is preparing a report on countries which seek to join the EU in 2007. (AFP)

A controversy over wearing the Islamic headscarf threatens to mar Turkey’s national day celebrations after President Ahmet Necdet Sezer excluded the wives of Islamist-leaning MPs from an official invitation. In an apparent bid to avoid unpleasantness at a national day reception, the president, a staunch defender of the country’s secular principles, only invited AK MPs to the event marking the October 29 Republic Day. But the wives of MPs from the pro-secular opposition Republican People’s Party were also included in the invitations, press reports said. Several AK MPs have protested what they see as an intentional snub. (AFP)