cell, the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal said late Sunday, March 12.
A preliminary report of an eight-hour autopsy apparently disputes allegations that Milosevic, 64, may have died of poisoning or suicide. An official of the UN court at The Hague speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal information, told journalists the autopsy results showed that Milosevic died of a "classical heart failure".
Milosevic is known to have suffered of heart ailments, high blood pressure and headaches, forcing numerous delays in his four-year war crimes trial. But at least some members of his defense team were expected to disagree with the autopsy report conducted by Dutch pathologists.
Outside the tribunal’s offices, Milosevic’s legal adviser showed reporters a six-page letter that he said the former leader wrote the day before his death claiming traces of a powerful drug used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis had been found in his bloodstream.
Zdenko Tomanovic said Milosevic was seriously concerned. "They would like to poison me," he quoted Milosevic as telling him recently.
NEW DRUG
A Dutch public broadcaster, NOS, quoted an adviser to the tribunal as saying that such a drug was found in a blood sample taken in recent months from Milosevic. The report said the adviser, who was not identified, claimed the drug could have had a "neutralizing effect" on Milosevic’s other medications.
Doctors found traces of the drug when they were searching for an answer to why Milosevic’s medication for high blood pressure was not working, the NOS reported. Milosevic had appealed to the war crimes tribunal to be allowed to go to a heart clinic in Moscow for treatment, but the request was denied apparently for fears he would not return.
UN chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte has refused to comment on claims that he could have been poisoned or committed suicide. She said she deeply regretted his death as "we were so close to get a conviction," for his alleged involvement in war crimes including genocide during the Balkan conflicts that left 250,000 people dead.
"It is a great pity for justice that the trial will not be completed and no verdict will be rendered," chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said. His death "deprives victims of the justice they need and deserve."
NEW QUESTIONS
His sudden death also ended a trial that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and raised new questions whether the victims of Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two will ever see justice. Milosevic’s lawyer Stephen Kay, who recently met Milosevic, said the former leader had made clear he did not want to commit suicide.
Even in death Milosevic remains controversial. Serbian President Boris Tadic says Slobodan
Milosevic should not receive a state funeral. "President Tadic considers that a state burial for Milosevic would be absolutely inappropriate considering the role he has played in Serbia’s recent history," Tadic’s office said in a statement monitored by BosNewsLife late Sunday, March 12.
That was a set-back for Milosevic’s followers of the Socialist Party who want their late leader to be buried in the "Avenue of the Great", the area in Belgrade’s cemetery set aside for prominent public figures.
In addition Tadic will not grant an amnesty to Milosevic’s wife, Mira Markovic, the presidential office explained.
Markovic fled to Russia in 2003, escaping charges of abusing her state position by granting a state-owned apartment for her grandson’s nanny – an offence punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. More recently there were allegations of incitement to murder, about which prosecutors want to question the late president’s widow and closest political adviser.
POLITICAL RIVAL
Last year, when a court convicted the killers of Serbia’s communist-era president, Ivan Stambolic, the judge reportedly ruled they acted on orders from Milosevic, who feared that Stambolic might re-emerge as a rival.
The indictment against Milosevic in relation to the Stambolic murder will now be dropped. But prosecutors have long argued that as his life-long political associate, his wife was also to blame for that crime, as well as other political assassinations, analysts say.
His widow, Mirjana Markovic, and son Marko, wanted for allegedly beating up a pro-democracy demonstrator, want the late president to be buried in Russia where they are based, to avoid arrest in Serbia. But Milosevic’s daughter Marija has told journalists "he is not a Russian to be buried there".
Instead, Marija, now living in Serbia’s partner republic Montenegro, is insisting that her father should be laid to rest in the family’s ancestral home, in the small settlement of Lijeva Reka, in Montenegro.
DIFFICULT ARGUMENTS
Observers say that if these arguments over the venue of the funeral are not swiftly resolved, it may be difficult for all members of the Milosevic family to attend.
They could not count on sympathy from the thousands who reportedly stood in the driving rain Sunday, March 12, to pay their respects to the reformist Serbian premier Zoran Djindjic, who was shot and killed by gunmen linked to the Milosevic-regime, on March 12, 2003.
The men allegedly wanted to stop the extradition of ‘patriots’ to the Hague tribunal. Rogue secret police members, who performed special tasks for the regime in the country and abroad, are on trial for the Djindjic assassination and other killings of Milosevic’s opponents they allegedly committed during his rule.
While the Serbian Orthodox Church has urged believers "to pray for Milosevic’s soul", priests and politicians also hope that the Balkan region will soon be able to burry the legacy of the former leader and heal the wounds of history. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Belgrade, The Hague and Moscow as monitored from Budapest).
