Milosevic to be buried in Belgrade

THE HAGUE - Slobodan Milosevic will be buried in Belgrade, his lawyer said today, following wrangling between the Serbian government and hardliners over restrictions posed by Belgrade.

"The son of Mr Milosevic has just informed (the) Hague tribunal that the funeral of his father will be in Belgrade," Milosevic's lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic told reporters in The Hague.

He said Milosevic's body would arrive in Belgrade on Wednesday afternoon, but gave no indication when the funeral would take place.

Milosevic, who died of a heart attack in jail on Saturday just months before a verdict in his war crimes trial, ruled for a decade as Yugoslavia imploded in conflict during the 1990s. Belgrade authorities have ruled out a state funeral.

A Serbian court said Milosevic's widow Mira Markovic, who fled to Moscow in 2003 to avoid charges of abuse of power, would not be arrested if she returned home. But she will face a court hearing and her passport will be confiscated, the court said.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the decision meant the funeral could take place in Serbia. Milosevic's son Marko had said he might consider a burial in Moscow unless he could be sure his mother would be safe in Belgrade.

"He should be buried in the place where he belongs, in the capital of our country, there is no discussion about that," Marko Milosevic told Reuters in The Hague.

"But unfortunately there are so many obstacles," he said. "The priority right now is the safety and life of my mother."

Marko and a group of Russian doctors visited the forensic institute where Dutch pathologists conducted the autopsy on Sunday. A hearse took the body from the institute to Amsterdam airport.

Milosevic's family has accused the UN tribunal of murdering the former Serb strongman by refusing his request to travel to Russia for medical treatment. Moscow has expressed distrust of the Dutch investigation into Milosevic's death and sent the Russian doctors to examine the post-mortem results.

On Tuesday, the UN court that has been trying Milosevic for more than four years formally closed his trial for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

"We express our regret at his passing. We also regret that his untimely death has deprived not only him, but indeed all interested parties of a judgement upon the allegations in the indictment," Presiding Judge Patrick Robinson told the court.

Newspapers in Belgrade published what they said was a tribute signed by more than 30 detained war crimes suspects from former Yugoslavia to Milosevic, who presided over wars that tore the country apart.

But the lawyer for one of the signatories, Croatian general Ante Gotovina, told Reuters Gotovina had thought he was signing a private condolence message to relatives and was shocked to see it called "a last farewell to our fellow fighter in The Hague".

A preliminary autopsy report showed Milosevic died of a heart attack. Toxicology test results are due later this week.

Serbian pathologists who attended the autopsy described it as very professional, but Milosevic's lawyer said he had feared he was being poisoned. He said Milosevic wrote a letter to Russia a day before he died asking for help.

"There were active, wilful steps taken, to destroy my health, throughout the proceedings of the trial," Milosevic wrote in the letter. "Those from whom I defended my own country in war are interested in me being quiet."

A Dutch expert said blood tests taken just weeks before Milosevic died suggested the 64-year-old, faced with a possible life sentence if convicted, had knowingly taken harmful medicines to bolster his case to go to Russia for treatment.

Branded the "Butcher of the Balkans", Milosevic was charged with 66 counts of war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.

UN chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said she was furious his victims had been denied justice and said Milosevic was responsible for his own poor health. "He was the one who decided that his state of health should deteriorate. He was secretly taking medicine," Del Ponte told the French newspaper Le Monde.

Milosevic's brother Borislav criticised the tribunal's decision last month not to allow Milosevic to travel to Moscow for medical care and said he wanted him buried in Belgrade.

"It was a kind of murder," he told Dutch news show NOVA.

Belgrade has turned westwards since Milosevic was overthrown in 2000. His death has further increased pressure on Serbia to arrest Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, both accused of genocide by the UN tribunal, as a price of progress on European Union membership.

- REUTERS