Milosevic's death marks 'total defeat' for UN tribunal, prosecutor says

cbc.ca ^ | Sun, 12 Mar 2006 11:35:20 EST | CBC News

[Proctor]

Milosevic's death marks 'total defeat' for UN tribunal, prosecutor says

Last Updated Sun, 12 Mar 2006 11:35:20 EST
CBC News

Slobodan Milosevic's death is a 'total defeat' for the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, says the chief prosecutor at his trial.

Carla del Ponte made the comments on Sunday, a day after the former Yugoslav president and Serbian nationalist was found dead in his cell at the UN detention centre in Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague.

An autopsy was being performed on Sunday amid accusations that Milosevic, 64, had been poisoned only months before the end of his four-year trial. The autopsy was being performed by pathologists in the Netherlands and observed by a pathologist from Serbia. Results were not expected for at least a day.

Del Ponte told the Italian daily La Repubblica that she viewed Milosevic's death as a "total defeat" for the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

He was facing 66 charges, including genocide, stemming from the series of wars that tore apart the Balkans for a decade, leaving 250,000 dead.

Del Ponte said she believed the prospect of a guilty verdict may have prompted Milosevic to kill himself.

"Perhaps he wanted to avoid all that," she said. "You have the choice between a normal, natural death and suicide, and of course it could be possible."

Milosevic suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure and his ill health had repeatedly interrupted his trial. On Saturday, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Milosevic died of natural causes

On Sunday, the war crimes tribunal president said he ordered the autopsy and a toxicological examination after a report from the Dutch coroner that failed to establish the cause of death.

Milosevic thought he was being poisoned, lawyer says

But his death fuelled accusations of conspiracy on Sunday, as his supporters insisting that Milosevic was a victim of foul play and had possibly been poisoned.

Milosevic's legal adviser, Zdenko Tomanovic, showed reporters on Sunday a lengthy letter he said the former leader wrote on Friday.

In it, Milosevic said traces of a "heavy drug" had been found in his bloodstream and said he feared he was being poisoned.

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

Massive outpouring of grief in Serbia

Thousands of people lined up to light candles and sign books of condolences on Sunday throughout Serbia, where many people regard Milosevic as a hero who tried to preserve Serbia's place as the dominant Yugoslav republic.

"They regard the circumstances of his death as extremely suspicious," said CBC correspondent Don Murray, who was in Belgrade.

"The country remains very divided in the wake of his death."

Murray said that man Serbs regard Milosevic as "a victim of machinations of the West."

2nd death in week at UN detention centre

Milosevic's detractors denounced him as a mass murderer, blaming him for leading Serbia into four Balkan wars, including the 1992-95 Bosnia conflict that left 200,000 people dead.

He was accused of overseeing the systematic killing of about 8,000 men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995, the worst massacre on European soil since the Second World War.

Eventually NATO sent 60,000 peacekeepers to the area to end the fighting and keep the Bosnian, Serb and Croatian armies apart.

Milosevic's death was the second one within a week at the UN detention centre in Scheveningen.

Former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, serving 13 years for crimes against humanity, committed suicide in his cell last weekend.

[Proctor]

Del Ponte said she believed the prospect of a guilty verdict may have prompted Milosevic to kill himself.

Preemptive propaganda strike to blame any evidence of "poisoning" of Slobo committing suicide?

Talk about Stalinist show trial. Here it is in the UN court in full view. One world UN govt justice? On full display.

[Proctor]

Del Ponte said she believed the prospect of a guilty verdict may have prompted Milosevic to kill himself.

"Perhaps he wanted to avoid all that," she said. "You have the choice between a normal, natural death and suicide, and of course it could be possible."

On Sunday, the war crimes tribunal president said he ordered the autopsy and a toxicological examination after a report from the Dutch coroner that failed to establish the cause of death.

Milosevic thought he was being poisoned, lawyer says

But his death fuelled accusations of conspiracy on Sunday, as his supporters insisting that Milosevic was a victim of foul play and had possibly been poisoned.

Milosevic's legal adviser, Zdenko Tomanovic, showed reporters on Sunday a lengthy letter he said the former leader wrote on Friday.

In it, Milosevic said traces of a "heavy drug" had been found in his bloodstream and said he feared he was being poisoned.

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

[Proctor]

fyi

[cloud8]

If it is, I'm glad, but a total defeat for the UN because...what?

[Proctor]

Milosevic's poison fears

12/03/2006 - 14:09:34

Slobodan Milosevic wrote a six-page letter the day before he was found dead, claiming that traces of a “heavy drug” had been found in his blood and that he feared being poisoned, a legal aide to the former Yugoslav president said today.

Zdenko Tomanovic showed the letter to reporters at the UN tribunal, and complained that the court which had been trying Milosevic rejected the family’s request that a post mortem be conducted outside the Netherlands.

Milosevic was “seriously concerned” about being poisoned, Tomanovic said.

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.

Milosevic had appealed to the war crimes tribunal last December to be allowed to go to a heart clinic in Moscow for treatment. The request was denied. He repeated the request as late as last month.

Milosevic underwent frequent medical examinations by doctors and specialists appointed by the tribunal and by Serb doctors brought at his own request. Detailed reports were routinely submitted to the judges.

The letter alleged that a powerful drug used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis had been found in his blood during an examination on January 12, Tomanovic said.

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

Reading a sentence from an English translation of the letter, Tomanovic said: “In any case, the persons who are giving me the drug for the treatment of leprosy surely cannot be treating me, and especially those persons from whom I defended my country in the war and who also have an interest in silencing me.”

The Belgrade lawyer described the drug as an antibiotic, but said he couldn’t remember the name. Milosevic had never knowingly taken such a drug, Tomanovic claimed.

Tomanovic said he saw the jailed Serb leader on Friday at 4:30pm. His body was found the next morning, and by 11am the letter was delivered to the Russian Embassy.

[neutrino]

Preemptive propaganda strike to blame any evidence of "poisoning" of Slobo committing suicide?

Really too obvious, isn't it?

[Proctor]

Panic set in when:

Slobodan Milosevic wrote a six-page letter the day before he was found dead, claiming that traces of a “heavy drug” had been found in his blood and that he feared being poisoned, a legal aide to the former Yugoslav president said today.

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 on Friday at 4:30pm. His body was found the next morning, and by 11am the letter was delivered to the Russian Embassy."

[Cicero]

Carla Del Ponte has been nicknamed "the new Gestapo", "the whore", "the unguided missile" and "the personification of stubbornness".

She takes perverse pride in such labels - she says they show she is doing her job.

Indeed the petite, chain smoking war crimes prosecutor, who is famous for her ruthless pursuit of goals, believes that it is her vigorous approach that led to the calls for her replacement as the chief prosecutor for war crimes in Rwanda.

--BBC News

Carla del Ponte. Unelected, representing no country or group of constituents, the face of a faceless and unelected NWO bureaucracy.

[Proctor]

I think to her tagnames should be added - "black widow" for poisoning Slobo.

[Leo Carpathian]

Former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, serving 13 years for crimes against humanity, committed suicide in his cell last weekend.

Looks like new sentence in the UN dictionary: "sentenced to commied suicide"
Lantos would be proud, finally some sssssuiccccides!

[neutrino]

Interesting, is it not, how the majority don't wish to see or acknowledge the profound corruption that led to the murder of a helpless prisoner.

More and more, I think that President Milosevic has earned the title "Martyr", in both the political and the Christian sense.

[libstripper]

Slobo may have been guilty of many crimes under Serbian law, but he deserved to be prosecuted there, not by some ghastly UN kangaroo court. This whole proceeding disgusted me since it could have just as well have been aimed at an American President or an American general who made a good faith decision defending the United States, either in a foreign land or domestically and was then hauled before this kind of a judicial monstrosity to answer for it. Also, let's remember that Slobo's final sin, as far as the UN and the Clintons were concerned, was trying to keep Kosovo a part of Serbia and trying to defeat the terrorist KLA, something that wasn't much different from what Abe Lincoln did circa 1860-1865.

[Incorrigible]

As the trial went on and on and on and on it became clear that this was the only way it could end.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

More and more, I think that President Milosevic has earned the title "Martyr", in both the political and the Christian sense.

Could someone explain to me why an unrepentant Communist thug is some sort of conservative martyr?

[neutrino]

Could someone explain to me why an unrepentant Communist thug is some sort of conservative martyr?

I was under the impression that conservatives upheld the rule of law. If in fact President Milosevic was murdered while in custody, then the rule of law was not maintained. He is not, then, a conservative martyr per se; rather, he is a political martyr in that he was murdered in contradiction to the rule of law.

Surely you don't advocate the murder of helpless prisoners, when no sentence has yet been passed by any court?

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

I was under the impression that conservatives upheld the rule of law.

Which makes the rockstar-groupie antics about Slobo even more interesting, since he engaged in activities that, if not in violation of international law, definitely violated the natural law.

If in fact President Milosevic was murdered while in custody, then the rule of law was not maintained.

The guy was 64 years old, hypertensive, and a chain smoker. Hint for those folks too stupid to figure this out unassisted: chain-smoking is NOT a good idea if you're hypertensive.

But I could never understand the Slobo-lovers here in FR when he was alive, either. Commie dictators are not any sort of conservative icon, but Slobo had his groupies here...

[neutrino]

since he engaged in activities that, if not in violation of international law, definitely violated the natural law.

And what, pray tell, is this "natural law" you bring into the discussion?

The guy was 64 years old, hypertensive, and a chain smoker. Hint for those folks too stupid to figure this out unassisted: chain-smoking is NOT a good idea if you're hypertensive.

And other threads suggest traces of a drug that would tend to neutralize the blood pressure medication he was taking.

So should I conclude that your brand of conservatism considers murder of prisoners OK - even without a conclusion of guilt or innocence?

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

And what, pray tell, is this "natural law" you bring into the discussion?

I would suggest reading the Sermon on the Mount as an introduction.

And other threads suggest traces of a drug that would tend to neutralize the blood pressure medication he was taking.

OK, which leads to the question: what else could leave detectable amounts of those chemicals? Probably a lot of things, since the most common "traces" left over from drugs are preservatives, which also happen to be found in food.

Rule of thumb in medicine: when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.

So should I conclude that your brand of conservatism considers murder of prisoners OK - even without a conclusion of guilt or innocence?

This statement is the most supremely ironic one you've made: you've concluded with absolute certainty that he was murdered, when the forensic workup on this guy will take weeks to months to complete, and then castigate anyone who is skeptical of your conclusion as supporting murder.

Take two Prozacs and call the loony bin in the morning, OK?

[arthurus]

Milosevic's death marks 'total defeat' for UN tribunal, prosecutor says

If he had not died now he would die some years later of old age and the trial would still be in progress. I think the International Court was designed originally by some fellow named Kafka or something.

[neutrino]

I would suggest reading the Sermon on the Mount as an introduction.

So "natural law" might better be called "drivel".

Regarding your prescription - physician, heal thyself.