Death of Slobodan Milošević

Milošević was found dead in his cell on 11 March 2006 in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention centre in the Scheveningen section of The Hague. An official in the chief prosecutor's office said that Milošević had been found at about 10 a.m. and had apparently been dead for several hours. His trial had been due to resume on 14 March with testimony from the former president of Montenegro, Momir Bulatović. A request for the autopsy in the presence of a Serbian pathologist was granted, and his body was transported to the Dutch Forensic Institute.

It was established that Milošević died of a heart attack. Suspicions have been voiced:

1. that he was deliberately given the wrong medication, causing the heart attack (Milošević had claimed to have been given the wrong medication three days before he died).[3]
2. that he took the wrong medication himself in order to worsen his condition or commit suicide. ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, suggested Milošević might have committed a suicide in order to foul the court and "evade justice"; (the prosecutor, ICTY PR, some Western media, and many U.S. politicians)
3. that he was, deliberately or through negligence, not given the standard treatment that would have prevented the heart attack. (Spanish doctors, Russian doctors, Serbian doctors, Milošević family, academician and philosopher Mihailo Marković)[4][5]

Milošević had been suffering from heart problems and high blood pressure. Initially, the Dutch coroner failed to establish the cause of his death.[6] Consequently, the president of the ICTY ordered an autopsy and a toxicological investigation. Immediately after his death was announced, rumours that Milošević had been poisoned started circulating.

Most notable was a letter Marko Milošević, son of Slobodan Milošević, sent to The President of the ICTY, The Chairman of the Security Council of the OUN, The Secretary General of the OUN, and to Judge Parker who led the investigation into Slobodan Milošević's death.[5] In his letter, Marko Milošević accuses the Hague Tribunal for negligence and for the death of his father. In one part of the letter, Milošević agrees that his father was not poisoned and accuses the ICTY for being misleading:

Secondly, neither we the family, nor the expert team of pathologists, which was familiar with my father’s health and was given the findings of the Dutch team, ever alleged the possibility of poisoning. To the contrary, I accepted the diagnosis of a heart attack (infarction) from the moment I heard it in The Hague. I warned both your deputy and the Dutch prosecutor not to vulgarize the investigation by setting up a "straw man" accusation such as a violent murder or poisoning. The lines you have chosen to describe the "scene of crime" are naïve, vulgar and insulting. The report itself, if made by an independent institution, would have been at the very least disappointing. But, since it’s being issued by the Tribunal, the very institution which had a monopoly over my father’s health during his time in UN custody, it is shocking. It contains an unexpected number of contradictions. Its contents and conclusions are absolutely unacceptable to the sane mind.

Marko Milošević then continues about the logic of the investigation into his father's death:

Even if we had suspicions of poisoning, it would be pointless to try and prove them in conditions where the only possible culprit is the investigator. It is as if an accused committed a crime, leads the investigation, and comes to the expected conclusion that he is innocent. An accused may defend himself, but it is quite unusual that the accused himself leads the investigation, as was the case with your investigation and your report.

The Milošević family raised questions about the legitimacy of the ICTY conducted investigation:

Should I mention the fact that the autopsy was conducted without the presence of the independent expert team sent by our family, even though we insisted on it? Or that the Russian doctors were denied the access to the body and the tissue samples? Or that we have been denied his blood samples? Now it happens that the Dutch medical institutions and doctors, which have already been gravely compromised in the eyes of the public through their involvement with the ICTY Prosecution in numerous manipulations with my father’s health, medical treatment, and respective diagnosis, were the only ones to manage the toxicology tests and announce their results?! Here I must remind you of my father's letter addressed to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in which he wrote just hours before his death that he suspected he was being poisoned in the UNDU. So here we have a situation where we are witnessing numerous speculations regarding his blood samples, he expresses his worry about it, then he suddenly dies. Now comes this mysterious autopsy conducted by the very same people that he accused in his last hours, and they conclude that there was no poisoning. How credible does this sound even to you Mr. Parker?

It is a pity that I am not in a position to ask Ms. Del Ponte an even simpler question – if he was ill, then why he wasn’t he given medical treatment when he asked for it? And if he wasn’t ill, then why did he die?[5]

Marko Milošević then concludes that the ICTY is playing on "straw man" policy:

I understand that the you have set-up this straw-man accusation of poisoning, and now by finding that there was no poisoning you assert that the ICTY has been relieved of all responsibility for my father's death. Nevertheless, an unquestionable truth remains before the public, the image of my father addressing your so-called "trial chamber" and asking to be allowed medical treatment, and the "presiding judge" responding that he will not listen to him.

The question isn’t whether or not my father was murdered or poisoned. The point is that a former head of state, being held in UN custody, was gravely ill and constantly complaining of his medical condition. His health condition was assessed many times by medical experts as dire. He was denied adequate (if any) medical treatment, and then he died. At the same time those who denied him treatment were undeniably aware of what the consequences would be. He asked for provisional release to receive medical treatment.

Marko Milošević doubted the intentions of the ICTY:

The Tribunal, and everyone in charge, has committed a deliberate murder. They condemned him to death on February 24th when they rejected his request for provisional release, ignoring everything: his health condition, his rights, and the warnings of his doctors, which unlike the jail physician hired by the ICTY, had both – unquestionable competence and expertise, as well as his confidence. Ignoring even the guarantees of The Russian Federation (by the explanation that those guarantees lacked credibility, it seems that the Tribunal has given itself the mandate to evaluate the credibility of even the Security Council's permanent member states). The ruling handed down on February 24th came into effect on March 11th. That is the fact and the truth. Any other speculation is just evasive political maneuvering.

As (one of the) conclusion(s), Marko Milošević offers:

It is obvious that even without poisoning, murder, or anything similar, but with heart failure which you consider to be a "natural" death that the ICTY and the UN who created it bears the sole responsibility for my father’s death.

There was a strong controversy across Serbia regarding on Milošević's funeral, as the Socialist Party and nationalist leaders demanded that it should be state-sponsored and high-profile. In particular, it was argued that Milošević ought to have a prominent resting place in the "Alley of the Greats," where other Serbian leaders are buried, which the Tribunal rejected such requests. As a result, the Socialist Party threatened to withdraw its support, which was essential for the ruling coalition. Finally, the Tribunal decided that Milošević should have a private burial in his hometown, Požarevac.[14] Nevertheless, a farewell ceremony was organised by the Socialist Party outside the federal parliament in Belgrade. About 50,000 of Milošević's supporters attended the ceremony, which turned into a mass demonstration,[15] with a succession of fiery speeches by prominent supporters.[16] Afterwards, Milošević's coffin was taken to his hometown for burial in the backyard of his family home. Milošević's family and close friends pulled out of his funeral, citing anonymous threats and contradictory statements from Serbian authorities regarding the requested guarantees that they would not be arrested.[17] Milošević's daughter Mirjana stated that the Socialist Party had hijacked the funeral for political ends.[16]

• The Milosevic medical file and autopsy report (scanned and downloadable)