Milosevic died of heart failure: media

By Nicola Leske

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Slobodan Milosevic’s death only
months before a verdict in his war crimes trial was caused by
heart failure, Serbian state television reported on Sunday.

Quoting what it called unofficial but reliable sources, the
television’s correspondent in The Hague said pathologists
examining Milosevic’s body found he had died from “classical
heart failure.”

A U.N. war crimes tribunal official said a statement would
be issued shortly on the death of Milosevic, branded the
“Butcher of the Balkans” over the conflicts of the 1990s.

CNN television, quoting unidentified sources close to the
U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, said Milosevic died of a
“massive heart attack.” It said it was not certain yet whether
he had died of natural causes but that would become clear after
the results of toxicology tests.

The reports followed an autopsy on the body of the
64-year-old former Yugoslav president conducted by Dutch
scientists and attended by senior pathologists from Serbia.

Milosevic, who suffered from a heart condition and high
blood pressure, was found dead in his cell on Saturday.

He 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 in the 1990s.

BALKAN WARS

U.N. chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said earlier on
Sunday it was possible Milosevic had committed suicide and that
his death made it all the more urgent to catch others blamed
for the horrors of the Balkan wars.

Del Ponte said he might have wanted to thwart the impending
verdict in his marathon war crimes trial, which she said she
had expected to be one of guilty, followed by a life sentence.

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.

Milosevic’s lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic said his client had
feared he was being poisoned, but the tribunal rejected a
request for the autopsy to be done in Russia, close ally of the
former Yugoslavia and home to Milosevic’s wife, brother and
son.

Tomanovic said his client had written to Russia asking for
help a day before his death, adding he had been given the wrong
drugs — including some for leprosy — in a bid to silence him.

Cardiologists treating Milosevic in The Hague had warned he
was at risk of a life-threatening condition known as a
hypertensive emergency, when surges in blood pressure can
damage the heart, kidneys and central nervous system.

Reports emerged indicating Milosevic may have had
suspicious traces in his blood or had not been taking
medication.

A blood sample from Milosevic in January contained traces
of drugs used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis that can
neutralize medicine for high blood pressure and heart problems,
Dutch public TV NOS reported, quoting an unnamed tribunal
adviser.

Leo Bokeria, head of the Bakulev Cardio-Vascular Surgery
Center in Moscow, told Russian television doctors treating
Milosevic in The Hague had suspected he was secretly spitting
out the medicines for high blood pressure they gave him.

PROBE ORDERED

Tribunal president Fausto Pocar said he had ordered a full
inquiry and that 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.

Serbia and Montenegro’s Minister for Human Rights and
Ethnic Minorities, Rasim Ljajic, flew to The Hague on Sunday.

It was not clear whether Milosevic’s widow Mira Markovic
would come to The Hague to collect his body. She visited him at
the detention center until 2003, when she fled Serbia for
Russia to avoid arrest on charges of abusing her power.

Serbian President Boris Tadic said Milosevic should not
receive a state burial and he would not grant an amnesty to his
widow, who faces arrest should she return home.

Eight Serb women laid flowers at the tribunal entrance on
Sunday. Milosevic’s rump Socialist Party said the former
president should get a national hero’s funeral, but apart from
a vigil by 100 die-hard 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.

“He is the man who had the courage to bring Slobodan
Milosevic to The Hague,” Del Ponte said.

(With additional reporting by Douglas Hamilton in Belgrade)