Autopsy Performed on Milosevic's Remains

ap ^ | 3.12.06 | ANTHONY DEUTSCH

[Flavius]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Dutch pathologists performed an autopsy on Slobodan Milosevic's remains Sunday amid claims by the former Yugoslav leader's supporters that he was poisoned and a statement by the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor raising the possibility he committed suicide. ADVERTISEMENT

Milosevic, 64, had been ailing throughout the trial, suffering from high blood pressure and headaches. He asked the tribunal for permission to seek treatment in Russia, but that request was denied.

Milosevic was found dead in his cell Saturday morning, abruptly ending his four-year U.N. war crimes trial for orchestrating a decade of conflict that killed 250,000 people and tore the Yugoslav federation asunder. No verdict will be issued.

War crimes tribunal President Fausto Pocar said he ordered the autopsy and a toxicological examination after a Dutch coroner failed Saturday to establish the cause of death. Serbia sent a pathologist to observe the autopsy at the Netherlands Forensic Institute, which is controlled by the Dutch Justice Ministry.

Outside the tribunal on Sunday, Milosevic's legal adviser showed reporters a six-page letter he said the former leader wrote Friday claiming that traces of a "heavy drug" was found in his bloodstream, and he feared being poisoned.

The letter alleged that a drug used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis was found in his blood during a Jan. 12 medical exam, Zdenko Tomanovic said.

"They would like to poison me," the lawyer quoted Milosevic as telling him.

Tomanovic also complained that the court rejected the Milosevic family's request that an autopsy be conducted outside the Netherlands.

Milosevic's older brother, Borislav, said the family did not trust the tribunal to carry out an impartial autopsy. He also blamed the tribunal for his brother's death because it rejected his request to get medical treatment in Russia, which offered assurances that Milosevic would be returned to finish his trial.

The letter, dated March 10, was addressed to the Russian Embassy. A one-line English language cover note asked the embassy to forward the letter to the Russian foreign minister.

Tomanovic said he saw the jailed Serb leader Friday at 4:30 p.m. Milosevic's body was found the next morning.

The tribunal earlier said there were no outward signs of suicide or unnatural causes of death.

But chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said suicide could not be ruled out until the autopsy results were released either late Sunday or early Monday. Both of Milosevic's parents committed suicide, as did a fellow war crimes defendant last week.

"You have the choice between a normal, natural death and suicide, and of course it could be possible," she said. "It is a possibility."

Del Ponte also said Milosevic's death deprived victims of justice and made it more urgent to catch and extradite other Balkan leaders implicated in atrocities.

"It is a great pity for justice that the trial will not be completed and no verdict will be rendered," Del Ponte said.

Del Ponte said the trials of eight other suspects indicted for the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 will help establish the record on Milosevic's involvement in the worst slaughter in Europe since World War II.

She said it was "more urgent than ever" to arrest former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his top military officer, Ratko Mladic, who were indicted in 1995 on charges of orchestrating the massacre. Both remain at large.

Milosevic's death came nearly five years after he was arrested by Serb authorities and extradited to The Hague as the first sitting head of state ever to be indicted for war crimes.

His health problems caused numerous long recesses in his trial on 66 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Del Ponte said the trial was close to completion this spring. After 466 trial days, only 50 days remained, she told reporters at the U.N. Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Del Ponte said the case against Milosevic was strong. In June 2004, the three judges rejected a defense motion to dismiss the case, which she said confirmed there was "sufficient evidence capable of supporting conviction for the 66 counts" of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity on which he was indicted.

Milosevic died less than a week after former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic committed suicide in the same prison in Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague. Babic, once a Milosevic ally, was a key prosecution witness in his trial.

Del Ponte denied that the two deaths could deter the surrender or arrest of other fugitives. In addition to Karadzic and Mladic, four other suspects remain on the tribunal's wanted list.

A leader of beguiling charm and cunning ruthlessness, Milosevic was reviled by the United States as "the butcher of the Balkans" but was a hero to many Serbs, despite losing four wars and impoverishing his people in the 1990s while trying to create a "Greater Serbia" linking Serbia with Serb-dominated areas of Croatia and Bosnia.

World leaders who dealt with Milosevic and many of the victims of the Balkan wars lamented that no verdict would be reached.

"I am sorry that his trial will not be completed, and that he did not acknowledge and apologize for his crimes before his death," said former President Clinton, whose decision to authorize NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 helped bring Milosevic down.

"Nevertheless, his capture and trial will serve as a reminder that egregious crimes against humanity will not be tolerated," Clinton said in a statement released by his New York office.

Milosevic was accused of being behind a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Serbs during the wars that erupted as the Yugoslav federation began breaking apart in 1991, and his death was cheered by many in the Balkans.

Milosevic's trial and Saddam Hussein's war crimes proceeding in Iraq were widely seen as together constituting the most important legal test for the international community since German and Japanese leaders were tried after World War II.

Both trials were sharply criticized for frequent interruptions and the ability of the defendants to use the courtroom as a stage to launch vitriolic anti-Western diatribes. Reveling in the spotlight, Milosevic insisted on being his own defense lawyer.

He was able to lead Serbia for 13 years despite a crumbling economy and increasing international isolation. He once described himself as the "Ayatollah Khomeini of Serbia," assuring his prime minister, Milan Panic, that "the Serbs will follow me no matter what."

But in the end, his people abandoned him: first in October 2000, when he was unable to convince most Yugoslavs that he had staved off electoral defeat by Vojislav Kostunica, and again on April 1, 2001, when he surrendered after a 26-hour standoff to face criminal charges.

[Recovering Hermit]

Clinton: "I'm off the hook, again."

[Paleo Conservative]

Milosevic, 64, had been ailing throughout the trial, suffering from high blood pressure and headaches. He asked the tribunal for permission to seek treatment in Russia, but that request was denied.

As if people from all over the world flock to Russia to get medical treatments.

[Flavius]

A Russian Communist holds a portrait of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, outside the Kremlin in Moscow, Sunday, March 12, 2006. Several dozens hardliners gathered near Red Square in heavy snowfall to pay tribute to Slobodan Milosevic who died on Saturday. (AP Photo/Alexei Sazonov)

Muslim women of Eastern Bosnian town of Tulza gather to watch the news of the death of former Yogoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. An autopsy was being held on the body of Milosevic as rumours of murder or suicide swirled around his death while on trial for war crimes.(AFP/Elvis Barukcic)

upporters of Slobodan Milosevic light candles in memory of the ex-Yugoslav leader in front of Serbian Social Party headquarters in Belgrade March 12, 2006. U.N. war crimes tribunal president Fausto Pocar said on Sunday a Dutch forensic team had not been able to determine the cause of death of Milosevic on Saturday which is why an autopsy was ordered. REUTERS/Ivan Milutinovic

Zdenko Tomanovic, lawyer for the late Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, displays a handwritten letter by Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague March 12, 2006. Milosevic wrote to Russia asking for help just a day before his death, saying he had been given the wrong drugs in an attempt to silence him, Tomanovic said on Sunday. Tomanovic showed a copy of Milosevic's handwritten letter to journalists at the U.N. tribunal, and said the former Yugoslav president had addressed it to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Carla Del Ponte answers reporters' questions during a news conference in The Hague March 12, 2006. The U.N. war crimes tribunal said on Sunday it did not know what killed former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic but hoped an autopsy would explain the death in his cell of the man branded the 'Butcher of the Balkans'. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen

[opinionator]

Where is Amnesty International? Did the International Red Cross inspect his living conditions? We need answers!

[RightWingAtheist]

Hurry up and bury him, so I can recycle some Bud Light over his grave.

[Jim_Curtis]

a statement by the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor raising the possibility he committed suicide.

In case he was poisoned they've given themselves an out.

[GSlob]

Well, they ought to continue the trial and render the verdict posthumously.

[PzLdr]

Good riddance to bad rubbish. His only contribution to modern history was demonstrating the futility of the international court that tried him... and tried him... and tried him...

[Maven]

Why would he write the letter in English?

Maven

[Unicorn]

He was railroaded.

[jwatzzzzz]

The KANGAROO court wasn't getting the job done; so, they resorted to EUTHENASIA.

[SquirrelKing]

LOL

"Arkancide" across the sea?

[sockmonkey]

To his credit, he did have the Religion of Peace figured out.

I must confess I think Kosovo would have been better off under Serbian Control than it's present state.

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

Arafat, poisoned(?). Milosobitch, poisoned (?). Sadam, ...

[ikka]

"I am sorry that his trial will not be completed, and that he did not acknowledge and apologize for his crimes before his death," said former President Clinton, whose decision to authorize NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 helped bring Milosevic down.

I am sure many of us will be saying pretty much the same thing when Clinton kicks the bucket.