Britain's MI6 squashed Balkan assassination plan

By Mark Trevelyan

LONDON (Reuters) - An officer of Britain's MI6 spy agency floated a plan in 1993 to assassinate a radical Serbian nationalist but the idea was immediately squashed, the inquest into Princess Diana's death was told on Tuesday.

The officer, identified only as 'A', told the court that he conceived the idea as a "humanitarian-driven proposal" to try to prevent even greater bloodshed in the Balkans.

"The thought occurred to me that there could be a responsibility on us to explore whether we should have a plan in place in the event of this radical person, this leader, coming to power in Serbia -- in fact, in the FRY, former republic of Yugoslavia," A testified at the inquest.

He did not identify the target, but denied allegations by a renegade intelligence officer, Richard Tomlinson, that the plan was directed against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. He said this would be "absurd" because Milosevic was seen at the time as central to diplomatic efforts to end the Balkan wars.

The inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed in a Paris car crash in 1997 is examining allegations by Dodi's father Mohamed that they were murdered by Britain's security services.

The Balkan plan is relevant to the hearing because it raises the question of whether MI6 would ever carry out an assassination -- something its former head, Sir Richard Dearlove, emphatically denied in testimony last week.

Investigations in Britain and France have concluded Dodi and Diana died in a tragic accident while trying to escape pursuing press photographers and that their driver Henri Paul, who was also killed, was drunk.

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