Milosevic post-mortem is questioned

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Milosevic post-mortem is questioned
CHRIS STEPHEN IN MOSCOW

RUSSIA last night demanded the right to send its own doctors to examine the post-mortem of former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic after Dutch doctors said the cause of death was a heart attack.

Meanwhile, a Dutch toxicologist said Milosevic had been taking a drug which worsened his heart problems.

A team of Moscow doctors is due to fly to The Hague this morning to query the post-mortem conclusions. It is unclear if they will be allowed access to the body or tapes of the autopsy.

Russia asked the UN Hague Tribunal to send Milosevic, 64, to a Moscow hospital last month and was refused. Now, says the foreign ministry, they want a second opinion on why he died.

Serbian president Boris Tadic added his own criticism, saying that Milosevic should have been given "a higher level of health care" by the tribunal, which he said was responsible for the death.

The post-mortem examination was conducted by Dutch doctors with a Serbian team observing, and said Milosevic died of a heart attack. Full toxicology tests are expected today.

Dutch toxicologist Dr Donald Uges said tests two weeks ago revealed the presence in Milosevic's blood of the anti-leprosy drug, rifampicin. Milosevic did not suffer from leprosy, but the drug would have had the effect of counteracting medicines prescribed for his heart problems.

Dr Uges said Milosevic may have taken the drug to worsen his condition in a bid to be sent to Moscow, where his wife and son are in exile. "I think that was his last possibility to escape The Hague," said Dr Uges. "I am sure there is no murder."

Russia said it received a handwritten letter from Milosevic last Friday expressing fears that he was being poisoned.

Milosevic's lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic said poisoning remained a possibility. "The central issue is whether or not Mr Milosevic was receiving the proper medical treatment," he said.

This is not the first time mysterious substances were found in Milosevic's blood. In the summer of 2004 medical tests revealed an unknown drug in his bloodstream. Lead prosecutor Geoffrey Nice told the trial in September 2004 that Milosevic was deliberately making himself ill to drag out the trial.

Milosevic's persistent problems with high blood pressure have been the principal reason for delays that had seen his trial stretch over four years, with ten days of his defence hearings still to go.

Meanwhile, Serbia has ruled out the possibility of a state funeral for the former president, although the lack of any convictions, either for war crimes or crimes in Serbia, means there is no formal legal obstacle. Belgrade also refused to consider waiving a criminal indictment against his wife Mira Markovic, who had wanted the funeral to be held in Moscow so that she could attend. This idea appears to have been shelved, with Mr Tomanovic saying Milosevic's son, Marko, is expected in The Hague today to collect the body.

The death of Milosevic comes at a delicate time for Serbia-Montenegro. With the economy stuttering, nationalist parties are staging a revival, and Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party has promised to end its support for the government unless the funeral takes place on home soil.

There is speculation that his grave will become a martyr's shrine for nationalist rallies, an embarrassment to a government trying to persuade the European Union to begin association talks.