THE HAGUE – The sudden death of Slobodan Milosevic in UN custody on Saturday has raised intriguing questions, notably what sparked the former Yugoslav strongman’s heart attack and where he will be buried.
It was also unknown whether Milosevic’s flamboyant widow Mira Markovic would be allowed to travel to The Hague to claim his remains from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), where he was on trial for genocide and war crimes. An autopsy performed Sunday pinpointed “myocardial infarction” as the immediate cause of Milosevic’s death, but an ICTY spokeswoman said it was “too early” to rule out poisoning, as charged by his entourage – and the ex-president himself in a letter revealed after his death.Milosevic’s legal advisor Zdenko Tomanovic said on Sunday that the former strongman had addressed a letter to the Russian foreign ministry saying that he feared he was being poisoned after receiving a medical report indicating large amounts of a drug for tuberculosis or leprosy in his blood.”Milosevic pointed out that during the last five years he had never used any such antibiotics, especially since he had never had leprosy or tuberculosis or any kind of infectious disease except for the flu,” Tomanovic said.A Serbian pathologist assisted and two Serbian observers were present at the autopsy.The heart attack finding put paid to the hypothesis of suicide entertained even by ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who said in an interview published Sunday: “He could have done it as a last act of defiance towards us.Perhaps he did commit suicide.”Earlier she noted: “It’s odd, although naturally it is possible, that he died unexpectedly without the doctors noticing that his health had suddenly worsened.”Milosevic’s widow Mirjana Markovic, known as Mira, is believed to have been living in Russia since fleeing Serbia in 2003.She has been charged by Belgrade with abuse of her office and there is an international arrest warrant issued in her name.Markovic had not contacted the Dutch embassy in Moscow to obtain a visa for The Netherlands as of Sunday afternoon, the Dutch foreign ministry said.Markovic, dubbed the Lady Macbeth of the Balkans, was a power behind the throne of her husband but faces arrest if she ever again sets foot in Serbia, where she has been indicted on charges of abuse of power.In an interview published in Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti Markovic said that she would prefer Milosevic to be buried in his home town Pozarevac but added she was a “hostage” to the international arrest warrant against her.- Nampa-AFP.An autopsy performed Sunday pinpointed “myocardial infarction” as the immediate cause of Milosevic’s death, but an ICTY spokeswoman said it was “too early” to rule out poisoning, as charged by his entourage – and the ex-president himself in a letter revealed after his death.Milosevic’s legal advisor Zdenko Tomanovic said on Sunday that the former strongman had addressed a letter to the Russian foreign ministry saying that he feared he was being poisoned after receiving a medical report indicating large amounts of a drug for tuberculosis or leprosy in his blood.”Milosevic pointed out that during the last five years he had never used any such antibiotics, especially since he had never had leprosy or tuberculosis or any kind of infectious disease except for the flu,” Tomanovic said.A Serbian pathologist assisted and two Serbian observers were present at the autopsy.The heart attack finding put paid to the hypothesis of suicide entertained even by ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who said in an interview published Sunday: “He could have done it as a last act of defiance towards us.Perhaps he did commit suicide.”Earlier she noted: “It’s odd, although naturally it is possible, that he died unexpectedly without the doctors noticing that his health had suddenly worsened.”Milosevic’s widow Mirjana Markovic, known as Mira, is believed to have been living in Russia since fleeing Serbia in 2003.She has been charged by Belgrade with abuse of her office and there is an international arrest warrant issued in her name.Markovic had not contacted the Dutch embassy in Moscow to obtain a visa for The Netherlands as of Sunday afternoon, the Dutch foreign ministry said.Markovic, dubbed the Lady Macbeth of the Balkans, was a power behind the throne of her husband but faces arrest if she ever again sets foot in Serbia, where she has been indicted on charges of abuse of power.In an interview published in Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti Markovic said that she would prefer Milosevic to be buried in his home town Pozarevac but added she was a “hostage” to the international arrest warrant against her.- Nampa-AFP.
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