Tom Squitieri USA TODAY

Wednesday's assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is likely to slow efforts to bring to justice high-ranking officials accused of war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia and make it more difficult for one of Europe's most restless regions to enjoy peace and stability.

Djindjic (JIHN-jihch) was a leader in the movement that brought democracy to the former Yugoslavia. On crutches from a recent soccer injury, he was ambushed and slain as he emerged from his car Wednesday outside the main government complex in Belgrade.

Police said Djindjic, 50, was hit in the stomach and back by two shots fired from across the street. It was the first assassination of a sitting European head of government since Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was killed in Stockholm in 1986.

''Here was a man who more than any other single figure stood for the reform process,'' said Carl Bildt, a former European Union (news – web sites) representative to Bosnia. ''It now throws all the cards in the air.''

Acting Serbian President Natasa Micic cited ''a danger for constitutional order'' and imposed a nationwide state of emergency. The declaration gives the military the same powers as police to detain suspects.

Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor at the United Nations (news – web sites) war crimes tribunal in The Hague (news – web sites), Netherlands, said Djindjic's death could set back the tribunal's efforts. ''He worked very hard to help us,'' Del Ponte said. ''He did not hesitate when sometimes it was not easy for him politically.''

Djindjic was pivotal in the democracy movement that toppled former Yugoslav dictator Slobodan Milosevic (news – web sites), whose nationalist policies fueled ethnic bloodshed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Djindjic saw Serbia's fate as linked to the West and favored greater cooperation with the U.N. tribunal.

He allowed Milosevic to be arrested and handed over to the war crimes tribunal in June 2001. For that, he was blasted by Serbian nationalists, including his former ally Vojislav Kostunica (news – web sites), who stepped down as Yugoslav president last month after the formation of a new, loose federation between Serbia and Montenegro. Djindjic recently promised Western envoys that he would try to arrest the former Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic. Mladic is the No. 2 fugitive wanted by the tribunal, after Radovan Karadzic, former political leader of Bosnian Serbs.

Djindjic was shot on one of Belgrade's main streets, three blocks form the U.S. Embassy. Serb officials said a Belgrade-based criminal group, called the Zemun clan, was responsible. At least two suspects were quickly taken into custody, but police also threw up roadblocks across the city to help in the hunt for any other suspects.

The government said Milorad Lukovic was one of about 20 known leaders of the Zemun clan behind the killing. Djindjic had launched efforts to break the power of criminal groups that had supported Milosevic and helped fund the nationalist wars in the Balkans.

A German-educated technocrat, Djindjic was known to supporters as ''The Manager'' for his organizational skills and as ''Little Slobo'' to detractors for being authoritarian. ''Slobo'' was a nickname for Milosevic.

Though derided for his fondness for big cars and flashy suits, Djindjic's trade of Milosevic for $1.2 billion in international economic aid won respect from people desperate to improve one of Europe's lowest standards of living. His death raised fears of renewed violence.

''Personally I am now afraid for the future of Serbia,'' said Slobodan Vucetic, the head of Serbia's Supreme Council. That sentiment was echoed across Europe and in North America.

''This crime was also directed against democracy and stability in the region,'' German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said.

Supporters of the new federation between Serbia and Montenegro, which was pushed by the European Union and the United States, had placed a lot of their hope on Djindjic to stabilize the arrangement. In addition to tracking down war criminals, the federation faces a number of challenges, and does so with a major leadership void. The country's pending challenges include:

* Soothing ethnic Albanians in the Serbian province of Kosovo, who want their own nation. NATO (news – web sites) troops, including about 5,000 American soldiers, now keep an uneasy peace there.

* Managing an ailing, changing economy. The country has two currencies: Serbia uses its dinar; Montenegro the euro.

Political assassinations and attempts at murder are strewed throughout the history of the Balkans. Archduke Francis Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was gunned down by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, which is now the Bosnian capital, on June 28, 1914. That assassination triggered World War I.

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