"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.

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.