Milosevic allegedly poisoned himself with leprosy drug

Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic deliberately took a drug to neutralize the effects of his heart medicine so that a UN war crimes court would let him travel to Russia for treatment, an expert who examined his blood said on Mar. 13. The claim that Milosevic effectively poisoned himself–while accusing others of poisoning him–came from Professor Donald Uges, a Dutch toxicologist. Uges said that he carried out an analysis of Milosevic's blood two weeks ago to find out why his blood pressure remained stubbornly high, and found that he was also taking the drug rifampicin, a powerful antibiotic used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis. "I am sure he took the medicine himself because he wanted a one-way ticket to Moscow," said Uges, a forensic toxicologist at the University of Groningen. "That is why he took rifampicin." An official autopsy on Milosevic, who was found dead in his cell at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on Mar. 11, pinpointed myocardial infarction–or a heart attack. A spokeswoman for the tribunal admitted that it was too early to rule out poisoning as a cause of death. Milosevic's entourage and the former Yugoslav president himself, in a letter revealed after his death, have claimed that he was being poisoned by malign outside forces. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that it had received a letter from Milosevic, written the day before his death, complaining about his treatment at the UN prison near The Hague and asking for protection. "In this handwritten letter Slobodan Milosevic talks about inadequate treatment by doctors of the International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, and reiterates his request for support from Russia in getting permission to undergo treatment in a Moscow clinic," the ministry said in a statement. The existence of the six-page letter was revealed by Milosevic's lawyer, who said that the former president had told him: "They would like to poison me." Milosevic had been defending himself since February 2002 against 66 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo when Milosevic was first president of Serbia and then of Yugoslavia. But, with his trial expected to wrap up in the next few months, the tribunal last month turned down a request from the 64-year-old to travel to Moscow for treatment, fearing that he would never return. The tribunal said that Milosevic's remains had been released to his family, but it was unclear who exactly had collected the body. A lawyer for the Milosevic family today announced that the body would be buried in Belgrade, but the funeral arrangements remain unclear. Milosevic's widow, Mira Markovic, and son, Marko, both live in Moscow, and want him buried there because Markovic faces arrest if she visits Serbia-Montenegro for his funeral. His daughter, Marija, wants him buried in the family plot in Montenegro. Serbian experts who attended the autopsy declared their satisfaction at how it had been conducted by Dutch pathologists. Critics noted, however, that Milosevic was the fourth inmate to die at the tribunal's detention center in Scheveninghen, outside the Dutch capital. The liberal Moscow daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta said that the tribunal's reputation had been "seriously compromised," and that there was now "little chance" that the Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic would be handed over. Karadzic, the Bosnian Serbs' wartime political leader, and General Mladic, their wartime military leader, have been indicted by the court on similar war crimes charges, but are still at large and are thought by some to enjoy the protection of the Serbian government. Belgrade denies this.