Milosevic’s death ‘a great pity for justice’

THE HAGUE – The UN war crimes tribunal’s chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said yesterday that former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic either committed suicide or died naturally as his trial for war crimes and genocide neared an end.

Milosevic died on Saturday with only 40 hours left in his exhaustive defence against 66 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, Del Ponte said, expressing deep regret that she would never see justice brought its conclusion in his case. The chief prosecutor dismissed as “rumours” allegations that Milosevic had been poisoned while in UN custody.But she left open the possibility that he had taken his own life in his cell at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.”I’m not commenting on these (poisoning) rumours.We must expect the results of the autopsy …to see the cause of death, but we have no choice (but) between a normal natural death and suicide,” she told a news conference.Del Ponte bemoaned the fact that she would never get a verdict from the ICTY against the former Yugoslav strongman, who mounted his own defence in August 2004.It was “a great pity for justice” that Milosevic died before a verdict could be reached, she said, adding: “Of course I’m very frustrated.”Del Ponte noted that the tribunal had in June 2004 rejected a defence motion to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence, “thereby confirming the prosecution had…sufficient evidence.”Milosevic’s death “deprives the victims of the justice they need and deserve”, she said.The tenacious prosecutor said the death made it more urgent than ever that the ICTY’s most wanted fugitives, the former Bosnian Serb military and political leaders, be brought to justice.WORST ATROCITY Milosevic will be forever linked to Europe’s single worst atrocity since World War II – the 1995 slaughter of some 8 000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.The massacre in the Bosnian town was at the core of his trial before the UN court in The Hague.Srebrenica was a UN-protected enclave of Muslims in a largely Serb region during the 1992-1995 war pitting Bosnia’s Serb and Muslim communities against each other.The war was bloody and brutal, with little quarter shown.Then, in July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Ratko Mladic which had been surrounding Srebrenica turfed out the powerless Dutch UN peacekeepers and overran the crowded enclave.Over the next few days, as a jubilant Mladic strutted in front of cameras, an estimated 8 000 men and boys were separated from the womenfolk, herded onto lorries and taken away to be shot.Many of their bodies are still being uncovered in mass graves.Srebrenica is the only incident in the Balkan wars officially ruled by the UN court to have constituted genocide, defined by the UN General Assembly in 1948 “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.The indictment against Milosevic over genocide and complicity in genocide cites “the widespread killing of thousands of Bosnian Muslims during and after the takeover of territories”, and specifically names Srebrenica.He was also indicted for the deaths of thousands of non-Serbs in detention camps.Although Milosevic was then president only of Serbia, he was accused by the UN tribunal of providing the Bosnian Serb leadership the necessary political, military, financial and logistical support that made the massacre and similar crimes possible.Hajra Ademovic returned last year to Srebrenica on the 10th anniversary of the massacre to bury two sons.”I still remember the day when we parted.We hugged and kissed in front of the house and they left….My soul hurts,” she said then.She is still searching for her three brothers, three grandsons and another son.- Nampa-AFPThe chief prosecutor dismissed as “rumours” allegations that Milosevic had been poisoned while in UN custody.But she left open the possibility that he had taken his own life in his cell at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.”I’m not commenting on these (poisoning) rumours.We must expect the results of the autopsy …to see the cause of death, but we have no choice (but) between a normal natural death and suicide,” she told a news conference.Del Ponte bemoaned the fact that she would never get a verdict from the ICTY against the former Yugoslav strongman, who mounted his own defence in August 2004.It was “a great pity for justice” that Milosevic died before a verdict could be reached, she said, adding: “Of course I’m very frustrated.” Del Ponte noted that the tribunal had in June 2004 rejected a defence motion to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence, “thereby confirming the prosecution had…sufficient evidence.”Milosevic’s death “deprives the victims of the justice they need and deserve”, she said.The tenacious prosecutor said the death made it more urgent than ever that the ICTY’s most wanted fugitives, the former Bosnian Serb military and political leaders, be brought to justice.WORST ATROCITY Milosevic will be forever linked to Europe’s single worst atrocity since World War II – the 1995 slaughter of some 8 000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.The massacre in the Bosnian town was at the core of his trial before the UN court in The Hague.Srebrenica was a UN-protected enclave of Muslims in a largely Serb region during the 1992-1995 war pitting Bosnia’s Serb and Muslim communities against each other.The war was bloody and brutal, with little quarter shown.Then, in July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Ratko Mladic which had been surrounding Srebrenica turfed out the powerless Dutch UN peacekeepers and overran the crowded enclave.Over the next few days, as a jubilant Mladic strutted in front of cameras, an estimated 8 000 men and boys were separated from the womenfolk, herded onto lorries and taken away to be shot.Many of their bodies are still being uncovered in mass graves.Srebrenica is the only incident in the Balkan wars officially ruled by the UN court to have constituted genocide, defined by the UN General Assembly in 1948 “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.The indictment against Milosevic over genocide and complicity in genocide cites “the widespread killing of thousands of Bosnian Muslims during and after the takeover of territories”, and specifically names Srebrenica.He was also indicted for the deaths of thousands of non-Serbs in detention camps.Although Milosevic was then president only of Serbia, he was accused by the UN tribunal of providing the Bosnian Serb leadership the necessary political, military, financial and logistical support that made the massacre and similar crimes possible.Hajra Ademovic returned last year to Srebrenica on the 10th anniversary of the massacre to bury two sons.”I still remember the day when we parted.We hugged and kissed in front of the house and they left….My soul hurts,” she said then.She is still searching for her three brothers, three grandsons and another son.- Nampa-AFP