ABC News: Suspicion Surrounds Milosevic's Death

ABC News: Suspicion Surrounds Milosevic's Death

Suspicion Surrounds Milosevic's Death
Swirl of Suspicion Surrounds Weekend Death of War Crimes Defendant Slobodan Milosevic
By ANTHONY DEUTSCH
The Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A swirl of suspicion surrounded Slobodan Milosevic's death, with evidence emerging Monday that the former Yugoslav leader took medication he wasn't supposed to.

Among the scenarios being floated: Drugs smuggled into prison, a poisoning plot and the possibility Milosevic was undermining his own treatment in hopes of being sent to Moscow, where his wife and son live in exile.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow did not fully trust the autopsy report and would send its own pathologists to examine the body. The U.N. war crimes tribunal had said a heart attack killed Milosevic, according to preliminary findings from Dutch pathologists who conducted a nearly eight-hour autopsy.

Milosevic's family also want Russian pathologists to conduct a second autopsy, their lawyer said. Four Russian doctors were granted weeklong visas to visit the Netherlands.

There was concern that a funeral in Serbia could ignite nationalist passions and cause turmoil for the pro-democracy authorities who toppled Milosevic in 2000. Milosevic was overthrown after a 13-year reign in which many around the world blamed him for a series of wars that killed hundreds of thousands and left the former Yugoslavia a splintered ruin.

As plans for Milosevic's funeral remained in disarray and his son, Marko, headed to the Netherlands to retrieve the body, a Dutch toxicologist said Monday that the war crimes defendant took unprescribed antibiotics that may have worsened his health.

The assessment by Donald Uges based on blood tests carried out in recent months raised questions about security at the prison and echoed past accusations by the trial's leading attorney that Milosevic repeatedly ignored medical advice and prescribed himself drugs.

Milosevic was found dead in his prison cell in The Hague on Saturday, just hours after writing Russian officials a letter alleging that an "extremely strong drug" was found in his bloodstream. Zdenko Tomanovic, his family lawyer, said Milosevic was "seriously concerned" he was being poisoned.

Milosevic had asked the tribunal in December for permission to seek heart treatment in Moscow. That request was denied after tribunal officials expressed concern Milosevic might not return. He repeated the request last month.

Serbian President Boris Tadic said the U.N. war crimes tribunal was responsible for Milosevic's death, though he added that it would not hamper Serbia's future cooperation with the court. Serbia was the dominant republic in the former Yugoslavia.

"Undoubtedly, Milosevic had demanded a higher level of health care," Tadic said in an interview with The Associated Press. "That right should have been granted to all war crimes defendants."

He added, "I think they are responsible for what happened."

It appeared increasingly probable the body would be returned to Serbia for a politically charged burial that could be a rallying point for nationalists.

Marko Milosevic raised the possibility of a temporary burial in Russia an apparent effort to get around the standing arrest warrant in Serbia against widow Mirjana Markovic.

But Tomanovic, the lawyer, said Monday it was the family's wish for his body to be returned to Belgrade, and prosecutors urged a Serb court to lift an arrest warrant against his widow temporarily a sign that Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica was working behind the scenes to ensure Milosevic's closest relatives will be able to attend the funeral.

Milosevic was arrested in 2001 and put on trial the following year on 66 counts for war crimes and genocide in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during Yugoslavia's violent breakup in the 1990s.

He was the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes, and the sixth war crimes suspect from the Balkans to die at The Hague. A week earlier, convicted former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, a star prosecution witness against Milosevic, killed himself in the same prison.

Despite uncertainty over where the funeral would be held, Milosevic's son was granted a visa to enter the Netherlands and claim the body.

Uges, the Dutch toxicologist, said he discovered traces of rifampicin in Milosevic's system a drug that "makes the liver extremely active" and can undermine the effectiveness of other medication.

Rifampicin is used with other drugs to treat tuberculosis. It also can be used alone to treat certain bacterial infections or asymptomatic carriers of a type of meningitis.

According to the U.S. prescribing label, the drug affects enzymes in the body to speed metabolism of a host of other drugs, meaning higher doses of those other medications may be needed to compensate. It also can cause liver damage.

Milosevic, 64, had chronic heart problems and high blood pressure.

"First he wasn't taking his medicine. Then he was forced to take it under supervision and his blood pressure still didn't come down," Uges told AP. "So his camp said 'you see, these Dutch doctors don't know how to treat him and he should go to Russia.'"

Uges suggested it may have been a ploy to be sent to Russia for treatment.

Geoffrey Nice, the leading trial attorney in the Milosevic case, had often accused Milosevic of intentionally ignoring the advice of his doctors.

On Sept. 1, 2004, during court hearings, Nice cited four medical reports all supporting assertions that Milosevic was self-medicating and even lying about his drug intake.

"He has been obtaining for his own purposes other drugs, no doubt to help himself," Nice said. "This material makes it overwhelmingly clear that the accused will do whatever is necessary to serve his own purpose. ... The court might be quite satisfied he has been manipulating this tribunal."

A second report last August by another doctor working at the U.N. detention unit identified as Dr. Dijkman, said "another drug" had repeatedly been found in Milosevic's blood a development he characterized as "odd."

Theories that Milosevic was deliberately poisoned gained momentum. Mirjana Markovic, the widow, insisted that he "has been killed by The Hague tribunal."

Another theory circulating in Belgrade was that his legal advisers secretly handed Milosevic the unprescribed drugs, acting under orders from ultranationalists who feared a conviction on genocide charges would hurt Serbia in another trial in The Hague. Bosnia has filed a suit against Serbia in the International Court of Justice for genocide for the 1992-95 Bosnia war, and is demanding billions of dollars in war reparations.

A tribunal spokeswoman said a final autopsy report would be released in coming days.

Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was critical of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for refusing last month to allow Milosevic to travel to Moscow for medical treatment.

"Essentially, they didn't believe Russia," Lavrov said. "In a situation where we weren't believed, we also have the right not to believe and not to trust those who are conducting this autopsy."

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