He died of natural causes, supposedly.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader who orchestrated the Balkan wars of the 1990s and was on trial for war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell near The Hague, the U.N. tribunal said Saturday.
Milosevic, 64, apparently died of natural causes, a tribunal press officer said. He was found dead in his bed at the U.N. detention center.
Milosevic has been on trial since February 2002, defending himself against 66 counts of crimes, including genocide, in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
The trial repeatedly was interrupted by Milosevic's poor health and chronic heart condition. It was recessed last week until Tuesday to await his next defense witness.
His death comes less than a week after the star witness in his trial, former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, was found dead in the same prison. Babic, who was serving a 13-year prison sentence, committed suicide. He testified against Milosevic in 2002.
A figure of beguiling charm and cunning ruthlessness, Milosevic was a master tactician who turned his country's defeats into personal victories and held onto power for 13 years despite losing four wars that shattered his nation and impoverished his people.
Milosevic led Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, into four Balkan wars, but always managed to emerge politically stronger. The secret of his survival was his uncanny ability to exploit what less adroit figures would consider a fatal blow.
Each time he would bounce back, skillfully reinventing himself in a series of political transformations as a devout communist, a reform-minded nationalist, and again as a communist at a time when most of the world had abandoned Marxist ideology.
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." For years, they did through wars which dismembered Yugoslavia and plunged what was left of the country into social, political, moral and economic ruin.
But in the end, his people abandoned him: first in October 2000, when he was unable to convince the majority of Yugoslavs that he had staved off electoral defeat by his successor, Vojislav Kostunica, and again on April 1, 2001, when he surrendered after a 26-hour standoff to face criminal charges stemming from his ruinous rule.
I mean, how long have those trials been going on?
Quote:
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A Dutch toxicologist said Monday he found traces of an unprescribed antibiotic in Slobodan Milosevic's system earlier this year after the former Yugoslav leader did not respond to blood pressure medication given at the U.N. detention center.
Donald Uges said he found traces of rifampicin, an antituberculosis drug that "makes the liver extremely active" and thus breaks down other medications very quickly, possibly taking away their effectiveness.
Milosevic, 64, had a history of heart problems and high blood pressure, and took medications to treat those conditions. He was found dead in his jail cell Saturday morning of an apparent heart attack.
His ailments caused numerous delays in his four-year trial for orchestrating a decade of conflict that killed 250,000 people and tore the Yugoslav federation asunder. No verdict will be issued.
A legal aide to Milosevic, meanwhile, said Monday the late Serb leader would be buried in Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro a funeral that could provoke tumultuous scenes in the capital he ruled for 13 years before being extradited to the war crimes tribunal for trial.
Zdenko Tomanovic said Milosevic's remains will be claimed by his son, Marko, either Monday or Tuesday, even though Marko is under an international arrest warrant requested by Belgrade authorities.
Tomanovic said Milosevic's family wanted a Belgrade funeral, apparently reaching agreement after earlier disagreeing over whether he should be buried in Serbia, Russia or Montenegro.
It was unclear if Serb authorities would approve. Serbian President Boris Tadic said Sunday a state funeral for Milosevic would be "absolutely inappropriate."
"I have just submitted information to the government of Serbia that the funeral will be in Belgrade, that this is the wish of (the) Milosevic family," Tomanovic told reporters at the U.N. tribunal.
Milosevic was found dead on his prison bed Saturday morning, just hours after writing an accusatory letter alleging that a "heavy drug" had been found in his bloodstream.
The allegations in what amounted to Milosevic's deathbed letter put the tribunal and U.N. prosecutors on the defensive about whether they had given Milosevic the medical treatment he needed and whether they had conducted the trial properly and effectively.
The tribunal said Sunday a heart attack killed Milosevic, according to preliminary findings from Dutch pathologists, who conducted a nearly eight-hour autopsy on the former Yugoslav leader.
A tribunal spokeswoman said it was too early to determine whether poison caused the heart attack, saying a final autopsy report would be released in coming days.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow does not fully trust Milosevic's autopsy and wants to send doctors to examine the body.
Before the autopsy results were available, chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said suicide could not be ruled out. Milosevic's parents committed suicide.
Tomanovic said the ex-president feared he was being poisoned. He showed reporters a six-page letter Milosevic wrote to Russian officials Friday the day before his death claiming that traces of an antibiotic he had never knowingly taken were found in his blood.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday confirmed that Milosevic's aides handed the letter to the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands on Saturday.
Tomanovic said Milosevic was "seriously concerned" he was being poisoned.
"They would like to poison me," he quoted Milosevic as telling him.
He cited a Jan. 12 Dutch medical report which showed traces of medication used against leprosy and tuberculosis, but he said Milosevic had never knowingly taken them.
Uges, whom the tribunal asked to confirm the findings in a test in February, said he found the same antibiotic in Milosevic's blood weeks later.
Milosevic asked the tribunal in December for permission to seek heart treatment in Moscow. That request was denied after tribunal officials expressed concern Milosevic might not return. He repeated the request last month.
Lavrov said Russia was disturbed by the tribunal's refusal.
"Now they are conducting the autopsy," he said Monday. "In the situation when we weren't believed, we also have the right not to believe and not to trust those who are conducting these autopsy."
Tribunal President Fausto Pocar said he ordered the autopsy and a toxicological examination after a Dutch coroner was unable Saturday to establish the cause of death. Serbia sent a pathologist to observe the autopsy at the Netherlands Forensic Institute.
Del Ponte said claims that Milosevic committed suicide or was poisoned were "just rumors" so far.
"You have the choice between normal, natural death and suicide, and of course it could be possible," she said. "It is a possibility."
But a Milosevic associate who said he spoke to the former Yugoslav leader Friday described Milosevic as defiant hours before his death.
"He told me, 'Don't you worry: They will not destroy me or break me. I shall defeat them all,'" Milorad Vucelic, a Socialist Party official, said Saturday in Belgrade.
On Sunday, Milosevic's family had argued over where to bury him.
His brother, Borislav Milosevic, suggested to Serbia's Beta news agency that he should be buried in Serbia.
But Milosevic's widow, Mirjana Markovic, and their son, Marko, wanted him buried in Russia, where they live, Beta said. They are wanted on international arrest warrants for abuse of power and could be taken into custody if they return to Serbia for a funeral.
Milosevic's daughter, Marija, said he should be buried in Montenegro, in their family grave in Lijeva Rijeka, north of the capital, Podgorica.
Milosevic was arrested in 2001 and put on trial in February 2002 on 66 counts for war crimes and genocide in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during Yugoslavia's violent breakup in the 1990s. He was the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes.
But his health problems repeatedly delayed the proceedings, which cost an estimated $200 million and were due to wrap up this summer. Milosevic suffered from heart trouble and chronic high blood pressure, worsened by the stress of conducting his own defense.
Milosevic was the sixth war crimes suspect from the Balkans to die at The Hague. A week earlier, convicted former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, a star prosecution witness against Milosevic, killed himself in the same prison.
___
Associated Press reporters Bruce Mutsvairo in The Hague; Katarina Kratovac and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro; and Fisnik Abrashi in Djakovica, Serbia-Montenegro, contributed to this report.
Hmm.
Yet another person I never heard of but it's interesting to hear. o_0
~T2K
Yeah, I heard about this. I kind of feel sorry for him, him being only 64 years old and all. But eh, sh-t happens. Not like he would've gotten any different if he had been found guilty, which he most likely would have.
However he died, I hope it hurt.
I'm pretty sure that a heart attack would hurt, Cyc.
It was a heart attack, the autopsy said.
One less genocidal maniac in the world. Hooray hooray, enjoy eternity with Satan shoving white-hot coals in your belly button, Slobodon.
Don't you mean shoving piles of frozen ice while endearing hail the size of minivans?
Or so says Dante.
