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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 14:39:01 |
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The UN war crimes tribunal said on Sunday it did not know what killed Slobodan Milosevic but hoped an autopsy would explain the death in his cell of the man branded the "Butcher of the Balkans".
Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said the death of the former Yugoslav president made the arrest of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, also accused of genocide, even more pressing.
A Dutch forensic team had not been able to determine the cause of death on Saturday so an autopsy was ordered, UN war crimes tribunal president Fausto Pocar told a news conference.
Del Ponte said she could not rule out suicide but said she wanted to wait for the autopsy, initial results of which she expected later on Sunday.
She noted that Milosevic's death was the second within a week at the tribunal's detention centre after the suicide of former rebel Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic.
Milosevic, who suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure, was found dead in cell on Saturday, only months before a verdict was due in his four-year-old trial.
Relatives of war victims and Balkan politicians said they had been robbed of justice over conflicts that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s.
"Now more than ever I expect Serbia to finally arrest and transfer Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic to the Hague as soon as possible. The death of Slobodan Milosevic makes it even more urgent for them to face justice," Del Ponte told journalists.
"I deeply regret the death of Slobodan Milosevic. It deprives the victims of the justice they need and deserve," she added.
Milosevic's lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic told reporters on Saturday his 64-year-old client had feared he was being poisoned but the tribunal rejected a request for the autopsy to take place in Russia.
Serbia and Montenegro's Minister for Human Rights and Ethnic Minorities, Rasim Ljajic, arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday with two pathologists for the autopsy, his spokeswoman said.
Milosevic's body was taken in a silver hearse from the detention centre to a forensic institute on Saturday evening.
HERO'S FUNERAL?
There was no word on when Milosevic's body might be returned to Serbia for burial and no reliable information on when and where the funeral will take place. It was also not clear if his wife Mira Markovic would come to The Hague to collect his body.
"It will be up to the family whether or not they want to publish that kind of information," the tribunal official said.
Mira Markovic made several conjugal visits to the detention centre up until 2003, when she fled Serbia for Russia to avoid arrest on charges of abusing her influence in the 1990s.
There was little sign of grief in Serbia, which on Sunday marked the third anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, the man who ousted Milosevic.
But the country's opposition Radical Party, the strongest in grassroots support, and Milosevic's rump Socialist Party said the former president should get a national hero's funeral.
Analysts said his death could make the centrist government hesitate over delivering Mladic to The Hague. The European Union has threatened to suspend association talks if he is not arrested in the next four weeks.
Milosevic's death occurred at a difficult time for Serbia with Kosovo poised to win independence and Montenegro also set to vote on a split from Belgrade in a referendum in May.
Milosevic was charged with 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in indictments covering conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo as Yugoslavia imploded.
Denouncing the tribunal as an anti-Serb witchhunt, he declined to enter a plea in Europe's most significant war crimes trial since top Nazis were tried after World War Two.
The tribunal faces questions from those who feel robbed of justice about why the trial had gone on so long compared with the one-year life of Nuremberg after World War Two and the more limited scope of Saddam Hussein's trial in Iraq.
Milosevic's ill-health had repeatedly interrupted his trial. Last month, the court rejected his bid to go to Russia for medical treatment, noting the trial was nearly finished.
The tribunal also faces questions over monitoring of inmates. Normal detention centre procedures mean inmates are checked every 30 minutes during the night.
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