Milosevic found dead in jail as trial neared end

A supporter of Slobodan Milosevic reacts to the news of his death near a poster of the late Yugoslav leader. Picture / Reuters

THE HAGUE - Slobodan Milosevic, branded the "butcher of the Balkans" for the wars that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, was found dead in his cell today, just months before his trial was expected to conclude.

"Milosevic was found lifeless on his bed in his cell," the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague said in a statement.

The court said a medical officer confirmed that the 64-year-old former Yugoslav president, who suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure, was dead.

A tribunal spokeswoman said there was no indication Milosevic had committed suicide. She said the trial, which had already lasted four years, would end now he was dead.

But Milosevic's lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic told reporters at the tribunal his client feared he was being poisoned.

"I have officially insisted that the autopsy not be carried out in The Hague but in Moscow," Tomanovic said.

The tribunal rejected his request.

Milosevic's ill health had repeatedly interrupted his trial that started in February 2002. Last month, the court rejected Milosevic's bid to go to Russia for medical treatment, noting the trial was almost over.

Russia and Yugoslavia were close allies in the 1990s and Moscow opposed the NATO bombing campaign to stop the crackdown on Kosovo Albanians that led to his overthrow in 2000 after 10 years in power.

Milosevic rose to the top of Yugoslav politics in the power vacuum left by the death of post-World War Two Yugoslav dictator Marshal Josip Broz Tito in 1980.

"With the death of Milosevic, one of the main actors, if not the main actor, in the Balkan wars of the late 20th century has left the scene," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters, adding Milosevic had died of natural causes.

Milosevic was charged with 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo as he sought to carve out a "Greater Serbia" in the 1990s. He dismissed the trial and refused to plead.

It was Europe's most significant war crimes trial since top Nazis were tried in Nuremberg after World War Two.

The charges against him included involvement in the siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 Bosnia war and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the UN "safe area" of Srebrenica, Europe's worst single atrocity since World War Two.

He had branded his war crimes trial a "distortion of history" and blamed the West for fuelling Yugoslavia's collapse.

His was the second death at the detention centre within a week after former rebel Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic committed suicide. A former ally of Milosevic already convicted for war crimes, Babic was a key witness against Milosevic, accusing him of bringing shame on Serbs.

Milosevic's death will raise questions over supervision at the detention centre and stoke criticism that proceedings were too long compared with the one-year life of Nuremberg.

"The death of Slobodan Milosevic, a few weeks before the completion of his trial, will prevent justice to be done in his case," chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said in a statement.

"However, the crimes for which he was accused, including genocide, cannot be left unpunished," she said, adding that the six war crimes suspects still at large must be arrested.

Kasim Cerkezi, a Kosovo Albanian who lost six members of his family in a Serb assault on the western town of Djakovica in March 1999, said Milosevic's death denied him justice.

"His punishment could not bring back my son, but it would be a drop of satisfaction in a sea of pain," he said.

Looking pale and with his shock of white hair swept back, Milosevic said last month his health was worsening and he was hearing noises in his head.

Milosevic's wife Mirjana, his high-school sweetheart often described as the driving force behind his career, blamed the court. "The tribunal has killed my husband," she told CNN.

Milosevic's brother Borislav, former Yugoslav ambassador to Moscow, said the tribunal was responsible for this death for not letting him travel to Russia.

Some analysts in Serbia said the shock of Milosevic's death could revive Serbian resentment of the West in a year in which Kosovo could win independence and Montenegro could also vote to split from Belgrade in a referendum in May.

"It's sad that he died. Our enemies killed him. His heart could not stand it," said one old man on a Belgrade street. "They release criminals and they put Serbs on trial."

Steven Kay, a lawyer appointed by the tribunal to help Milosevic prepare his case, said the former Serb strongman told him a few weeks ago he had no intention of taking his own life.

"He has a history of suicide in his family -- both his parents -- but as far as he was concerned, his attitude to me was quite the opposite from that. He was determined to keep fighting his case," Kay told BBC television.

- REUTERS