Serbs reacted with shock yesterday to the news that Zeljko Raznatovic, the notorious paramilitary leader and war crimes suspect known as "Arkan", had been shot dead in a Belgrade hotel lobby.
Western leaders said they regretted that the murder had robbed them of the chance to bring one of Serbia's most feared warlords before a UN war crimes tribunal.
In Bosnia, where Arkan's fighters spread terror among Muslim civilians, an adviser to the Muslim presidency said his only regret was that the paramilitary leader could not now testify against President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia in any future war crimes trial.
Arkan was hit by three bullets in the face when gunmen walked into the Intercontinental Hotel lobby on Saturday afternoon and opened fire at close range. He was dead on arrival at hospital. Two of his companions were also killed. Many people doubt if the assassins will ever be caught.
The news of Arkan's death made the front pages of all Belgrade newspapers apart from the pro-government Politika, which led with the headline "US has a one-party government".
Arkan (47) was born in Slovenia and started out as a small-time gangster who received jail sentences totalling 20 years for robbery, extortion, and bank robbery. He was wanted by Interpol for crimes committed in seven countries, and Belgrade press reports said he was also believed to have murdered Croatians living in Germany at the behest of the Yugoslav secret services.
Arkan spread fear across the Balkans with his black-uniformed units, the most ruthless of which were called the "Tigers".
He was indicted in 1997 by the Hague-base International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes against humanity.
Mr Mirza Hajric, adviser to the Bosnian Muslim presidency member, Mr Alija Izetbegovic, said Arkan's violent death was no surprise and his units had committed war crimes across the Balkans.
He said he was only sorry Arkan would not go to The Hague to testify against Mr Milosevic - also indicted for war crimes. "I think he could have provided crucial evidence on Milosevic's involvement in war crimes in Bosnia," he said.
The head of the UN mission to Bosnia, Mr Jacques Klein, said Arkan was "a psychopathic mass murderer".
Mr Klein, who in 1996-1997 headed the UN administration of eastern Slavonia, said Arkan had been an instrument of policy.
"You find sick people like this, sick minds who do the dirty work for you," he said.
"I think even before the war Arkan was a criminal and an assassin and during the war dressed up his personal greed and ambition under the rubric of nationalism," Mr Klein said. "When the flood rises and the water rises the rats float to the surface and that is what happened during this war.
"It also demonstrates to us that we have a sick society in Serbia, a society that allowed this man freedom, allowed him to exist," Mr Klein said.
Mr Vladan Batic, leader of Serbia's opposition Alliance for Change grouping, said violent death had become an everyday event in the country. The assassination would join a list of 500 unsolved murders.
Killed with Arkan were Milenko Mandic or "Manda", a figure from the Belgrade underworld, and Dragan Garic, who worked at the interior ministry.