Milosevic died of heart attack

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, March 12, 2006

PARIS – Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died of a heart attack, according to autopsy results released Sunday by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. A more detailed examination to determine the cause of the heart failure has not been completed, the court said.

Milosevic, 64, the first former leader of a state to be tried for genocide and other crimes against humanity, was found dead Saturday on his bed inside his cell at the U.N. tribunal’s prison outside The Hague. Milosevic had been on trial the past four years for his role in four Balkan wars during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The trial had been expected to conclude by May.

Sunday night’s announcement came at the end of a day of speculation about his death. The war tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said at a news conference that suicide was a “possibility.”

A short time later, one of Milosevic’s attorneys showed reporters two letters purportedly written by Milosevic on Friday – the day before he died – claiming he was being poisoned with drugs that were neutralizing his medication for high blood pressure and a chronic heart condition.

“According to the pathologists, Slobodan Milosevic’s cause of death was a ‘myocardial infarction,’” the medical terminology for a heart attack, the international war crimes tribunal said in statement, adding, “The pathologists identified two heart conditions that Slobodan Milosevic suffered from, which they said would explain” the heart attack.

The tribunal said a toxicological exam to determine the cause of the heart attack “will still be carried out” and that “the final report will be issued as soon as possible.”

The tribunal said Milosevic’s body would be given to his family today.

The family, however, reportedly is bickering over funeral and burial arrangements.

The Russian news agency Interfax reported that Mirjana Markovic, Milosevic’s widow, and their son, Marko, want him buried in Moscow, where they live in exile, trying to avoid criminal charges in Serbia.

Milosevic’s daughter, Marija, told Belgrade’s Beta news agency that she wanted he father buried in Serbia, where he was born.

The Socialist Party wants Milosevic to have a funeral in Belgrade and be buried in a special section of the city’s main cemetery reserved for national leaders and heroes.