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"Milosevic might commit suicide"
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-13 10:40
The chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor said on Sunday it was possible Slobodan
Milosevic had committed suicide amid a report that the former Yugoslav president
may have taken drugs that worsened his health.
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| Supporters of Slobodan Milosevic walk in front of a poster of the
late Yugoslav leader in the headquarters of pro-Milosevic support group
'Freedom' in Belgrade March 11, 2006. Milosevic feared he was being
poisoned in his detention cell in The Hague, his lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic
said on Saturday hours after the tribunal announced Milosevic's death.
[REUTERS] |
Dutch scientists concluded an autopsy on Milosevic's body, which was found
lifeless in his prison cell a day earlier, but did not immediately indicate the
cause of death.
"We are waiting to see if we get the results and will put out a statement if
we do," a tribunal spokeswoman said, but did not indicate whether there would be
a statement on Sunday.
Carla del Ponte said Milosevic may have wanted to thwart the impending
verdict in his marathon war crimes trial, which she said would have proved his
guilt and sentenced him for life.
She noted it was the second death in a week at the Hague tribunal's detention
center. Former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic took his own life last Sunday.
Senior pathologists from Serbia observed the autopsy.
The 64-year-old, who suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure,
was found dead only months before a verdict was due in his trial on charges of
genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the 1990s.
Milosevic's lawyer said his client had feared he was being poisoned, but the
tribunal rejected his request for the autopsy to take place in Russia, a close
ally of the former Yugoslavia and home to Milosevic's wife, brother and son.
Zdenko Tomanovic, Milosevic's lawyer, said his client had written to Russia
asking for help a day before his death, stating he had been given the wrong
drugs -- including drugs for leprosy -- in an attempt to silence him.
Reports emerged indicating Milosevic may have had suspicious traces in his
blood or had not been taking medication.
A blood sample taken from Milosevic in January -- he made a request on
December 12 to go to Russia for treatment -- contained traces of drugs used to
treat leprosy or tuberculosis, which can neutralize medicine for high blood
pressure and heart problems, Dutch public television NOS reported, quoting an
unnamed adviser to the tribunal.
Leo Bokeria, head of the Bakulev Cardio-Vascular Surgery Center in Moscow,
told Russian television that doctors treating Milosevic in The Hague had
suspected he was secretly spitting out the medicines for high blood pressure
they gave him.
"They carried out tests to check for the presence of the medicine in his
bloodstream because they thought that he was hiding it in his cheeks," he said.
The Bakulev Center had access to Milosevic's medical records and last month
the tribunal rejected his request to go there for treatment, saying specialists
could come to The Hague.
"JUSTICE DENIED"
Tribunal president Fausto Pocar said he had ordered a full inquiry and said
the Dutch authorities were also investigating.
Both Pocar and Del Ponte said they regretted the death.
"It deprives the victims of the justice they need and deserve," Del Ponte
told a news conference in The Hague.
"Now more than ever I expect Serbia to finally arrest and transfer Ratko
Mladic and Radovan Karadzic to the Hague as soon as possible. The death of
Slobodan Milosevic makes it even more urgent for them to face justice," she
said.
Serbia is under pressure to transfer Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic and his
military commander Mladic -- like Milosevic both accused of genocide -- to The
Hague or jeopardize its hopes of joining the European Union, up for discussion
next month.
Describing his death as a "total defeat," Del Ponte told Italian daily La
Repubblica she was furious and believed the approach of a verdict could have
prompted him to take his life.
"Perhaps he wanted to avoid all that," she said.
Former Balkan envoy David Owen noted that Milosevic's father and mother both
killed themselves and said the former Serb strongman might have decided to act
before the detention center imposed a closer watch on him as the verdict
approached.
Milosevic was charged with 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and
war crimes in indictments covering conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo as
Yugoslavia imploded.
SPECULATION
Serbia and Montenegro's Minister for Human Rights and Ethnic Minorities,
Rasim Ljajic, flew to The Hague on Sunday.
"Our government expects a fast and effective examination ... to avoid any
speculation about the death," he told journalists, adding the toxicological test
could take 24 hours.
It was not clear whether Milosevic's widow Mira Markovic would come to The
Hague to collect his body. Compared by some to Lady Macbeth for her influence on
her husband, she visited him at the detention center until 2003, when she fled
Serbia for Russia to avoid arrest on charges of abusing her power.
Milosevic's rump Socialist Party said the former president should get a
national hero's funeral, but apart from a vigil by 100 diehard and mostly
elderly supporters at his old party office on Saturday, there was little display
of emotion.
By contrast, hundreds placed wreaths in Belgrade on the grave of reformist
President Zoran Djindjic, who ousted Milosevic and who was assassinated three
years ago on Sunday.
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