Death of Slobodan Milošević
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The death of former Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević in The Hague, where he was being tried for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, caused a stir and was a major political event, especially for Serbia. Milošević died only months before the verdict was due in his four-year-old trial. While few doubts exist that the immediate cause of death was a heart attack, it is a subject of heated discussions and a political issue whether the latter was provoked deliberately and who, if anyone, is responsible for it.
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[edit] Establishment of death
Milošević was found dead in his cell on March 11, 2006 in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention centre, in the Scheveningen section of The Hague. An official in the chief prosecutor's office said that he had been found at about 10 a.m. Saturday and had apparently been dead for several hours. His trial had been due to resume on 14 March with testimony from the former president of Montenegro, Momir Bulatović. A request for the autopsy in the presence of a Serbian pathologist was granted, and his body was transported to the Dutch Forensic Institute.
[edit] Cause of death
It seems to be established that Milošević died of a heart attack. However, suspicions have been voiced, notably:
- that he was deliberately given a wrong medicine that caused the heart attack;
- that he took a wrong medicine himself in order to worsen his condition or commit suicide;
- that he was, deliberately or through negligence, not given the standard treatment that would have prevented the heart attack.
As both the prosecution and the defence had generally (with very few exceptions) evaluated the trial as a legal and/or moral defeat for the opposite side, and as this conviction was widely shared by their respective sympathizers, both sides believed or claimed to believe that Milošević's death had been in the interest of their opponents, hence the mutual accusations.
Milošević had been suffering from heart problems and high blood pressure. Initially, the Dutch coroner failed to establish the cause of death [1]. Consequently, the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ordered an autopsy and a toxicological investigation. Immediately after the death was announced, rumours that he had been poisoned started circulating.
On March 12th, an autopsy was held in the Netherlands; its preliminary results showed that he had died of myocardial infarction, the scientific term for a heart attack. The tribunal warned it was impossible to rule out poisoning at the time of their statement, as the toxicological tests had not yet been completed.
The tribunal had recently denied Milošević's request for travel to Russia for specialist medical treatment. He planned to appeal against this decision, saying that his condition was worsening. Shortly before his death, he complained about wrong medical treatment to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that it received the letter from Milošević with his medical complaints. In the letter as provided by Milošević's lawyer Zdenko Tomanović[2], Milošević complained that he was being given a drug used against tuberculosis and leprosy (however, he didn't imply that he was aware of any particular side effects of the drug) and that even though the medical report containing that information dated from January 12th, he had only received it two months later, on March 7th (the day before the date of the letter). The same was reported later by former pro-Milošević Montenegrin president Momir Bulatović, who was due to testify for Milošević's defence. According to Bulatović, Milošević had stopped taking the drug and consequently was afraid of being poisoned. In his letter, Milošević motivated his desire to be treated in Russia, an unusual destination for treatment for heart disease, saying that "those who foist on me a drug against leprosy... and who have an interest to silence me" "surely can't treat my illness".
On March 12th [3], lawyer Zdenko Tomanović told reporters that his client had feared he was being poisoned and cited the aforementioned letter, as well as the medical report from January 2006, according to which Milošević's blood contained rifampicin - a drug that is normally used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis and which would have neutralized some of the effects of Milošević's medicines for his high blood pressure and heart condition. Tomanović said he had made a formal request for the autopsy to take place in Moscow. The tribunal rejected the request, allowing instead a pathologist from Serbia to attend the autopsy. In his statement, Tomanović said, "I demanded protection for Slobodan Milošević over his claims that he was being poisoned. I still haven't received any reply and that's all I have to say at this time."
On March 13th [4], Dutch toxicologist Donald Uges confirmed that the drug had been found in Milošević's blood and suggested that Milošević may have deliberately taken these drugs in order to get out of jail and seek medical treatment in Russia, where his wife and son were living in exile. This theory is semi-supported by sources at the war crimes tribunal, who say that Milošević had regular access to unprescribed drugs that were smuggled into his cell under a lax prison regime. Timothy McFadden, the prison governor responsible for Milošević, is reported to have complained in December and January that he could no longer monitor drugs taken by the former leader. His warnings went unheeded. Milošević had the key to his own office, which had a fax machine, a computer and a telephone, and access to a private “comfort room” for visits by his wife.
On March 17, it was confirmed that preliminary results of blood tests showed no indication that Milošević's death by heart attack was caused by poisoning. "So far no indications of poisoning have been found," Judge Fausto Pocar, president of the UN war crimes tribunal, told a news conference. "I would like to stress that these are provisional results." Tribunal registrar Hans Holthuis confirmed that traces of rifampicin were found in an earlier January 12 blood test. But Pocar said no traces of the drug were found at the time of Milošević's death. According to The Hague district public prosecutor Moraal, referring to the NFI/Dutch Forensic Institute, "rifampicin disappears from the body quickly, and the fact that no traces were found implies only that it is not likely that rifampicin had been ingested or administered in the last few days before death".
Leo Bokeria, Director of Moscow's Bakulev Heart Surgery Center, confirmed that the former president had died of a heart attack, but said adequate treatment in Moscow or in any one of many countries, including the Netherlands, would have saved him. According to Bokeria, the necessary medical procedures (coronary angiography and stenting) were "elementary". He said he saw "nothing showing signs of suicide", but there remained questions over whether Milošević received adequate care while standing trial at the U.N. tribunal. "If the patient had been investigated enough...he would have still been alive today." Bokeria also claimed that the Center had sent Pocar a letter informing him that Milošević needed hospital treatment and naming several countries beside Russia where that could be done.
The Times' medical columnist Thomas Stuttaford commented that, taking into account what had been known about Milošević's health condition for years, he was "surprised that he (Milošević) lived for as long as he did". According to Stuttaford, given the data that existed, he "should have been considered for a coronary bypass or angioplasty (unblocking of the arteries)"; while these operations might be rendered impossible by severe heart defects, that can only be established by "a careful analysis of the heart, and one would have thought that if this had been done, someone would have mentioned it". Using rifampicin might have been "a cunning way to kill a man that needs no expertise".
On April 5th, the conclusions of the Dutch investigation into the death of Slobodan Milošević were announced [5]. According to them, he had died of natural causes (a heart attack), and final toxicological studies had confirmed there were no traces of poisoning or substances which could have triggered the heart attack. The prosecutors also announced that although non-prescribed medicines had been found in Milošević's cell in December 2005, no such medicines were found in his cell the day after he died. The president of the UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal welcomed the final report that formally closed the Dutch investigation, but he said the tribunal will continue investigating the medical treatment Milošević received in detention.
[edit] Reaction
Chief U.N. prosecutor Carla Del Ponte deplored Milošević's death, saying that it had "deprived victims of justice". Concerning its causes, she concluded that suicide could not be ruled out and declined to comment on speculation that Milošević may have been poisoned.[6] In an interview with the Rome newspaper, La Repubblica, del Ponte said: "I am furious ... In an instant everything was lost ... the death of Milošević represents for me a total defeat." [7]
In Serbia and Russia, many criticized the Tribunal for allegedly being more or less responsible for Milošević's death. Members of Milošević's Socialist Party were particularly harsh - for example, senior official Ivica Dačić said that "Milošević did not die in The Hague, he was killed in The Hague". Serbian President Boris Tadić, who was an opponent of Milošević and the Socialist Party, said that in his opinion the U.N. war crimes tribunal was responsible for Milošević's death, but he added that it would not hamper Serbia's future cooperation with the court.
In Russia, criticisms were slightly milder. Foreign Ministry and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev both criticized the decision of the Tribunal not to allow Milošević treatment in Russia. The Russian Duma condemned the activities of the Hague Tribunal and called for its disbanding. Vice-speaker of the Russian State Duma Lyubov Sliska expressed the same opinion in an interview [8].
[edit] Burial
There was a heated dispute in Serbia regarding Milošević's funeral, as the Socialist Party and nationalist leaders demanded that it should be state-sponsored and high-profile. In particular, it was argued that he ought to have a prominent resting place in the "Alley of the Greats", where other Serbian leaders are buried. Serbian President Boris Tadić rejected such requests. As a result, the Socialist party threatened to withdraw its support, which was essential for the ruling coalition. Finally, it was decided that Milošević should have a private burial in his hometown, Požarevac [9]. Nevertheless, a farewell ceremony was organised by the Socialist Party outside the federal parliament of Serbia and Montenegro in Belgrade. About 50 000 Serbs attended the ceremony, which turned into a mass demonstration [10], with a succession of fiery speeches by prominent supporters [11]. Afterwards, the coffin was taken to Požarevac for burial in the backyard of Milošević's family home.
Milošević's family pulled out of his funeral, citing anonymous threats and contradictory statements from Serbian authorities regarding the requested guarantees that they would not be arrested [12]. Milošević's daughter said that the Socialist Party had hijacked the funeral for political ends [13].
[edit] Conspiracy theories
A few days after Milošević's death a Trojan horse Dropper-FB began to spread purportedly speculating about his cause of death. An email included a subject "Slobodan Milošević was killed" and mentions that attached photos reveal more about his death. [14]
Rush Limbaugh has mentioned that there exists "speculation" that Milošević "might have been poisoned by somebody." Limbaugh told his listeners: "I'm not drawing any conclusions ... but it has been reported that Slobo was considering calling Bill Clinton as a witness." Limbaugh added: "He hadn't made the formal request but was considering it. And now, Slobo is no more." [15]
