Milosevic Autopsy Finds Heart Failure

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died of heart failure while in his prison cell, according to preliminary autopsy findings announced Sunday by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The autopsy was performed by Dutch doctors in the Netherlands, and Serbian pathologists who attended did not dispute the findings.

Milosevic, who was found dead Saturday morning, was on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on charges of genocide and other war crimes that occurred when he led Serbia and Yugoslavia during the 1990s. The wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbian province of Kosovo killed more than 225,000 people and left more than 2 million refugees.

A further toxicological examination will be performed to check for any drugs or other substances in Milosevic’s bloodstream. Milosevic’s lawyer said the former president believed that he was being poisoned by being given the wrong medicines for his medical conditions.

Outside the Hague tribunal Sunday, the lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, showed reporters a six-page letter he said the former leader wrote the day before he died. The letter asserted that traces of a “heavy drug” was found in his bloodstream, and he feared he was being poisoned.

The letter alleged that a drug used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis was found in his blood during a Jan. 12 medical exam, Tomanovic said. The letter was addressed to the Russian Embassy in The Hague with a note requesting that it be forwarded to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov.

In Serbia and Montenegro, nationalist Serbs flocked to mourn Milosevic at hastily erected memorials, many in front of offices of the Socialist Party he once led, but the current Serbian government resisted pressure from ultranationalist politicians to honor the former leader.

Serbian President Boris Tadic’s office issued a statement saying there would not be a state funeral for Milosevic because Serbia had rejected him in 2001 when it allowed the former leader to be extradited to The Hague. The government also declined to declare an official mourning period.

Serbian officials indicated that they would leave in place an Interpol warrant for the arrest on corruption charges of Mirjana Markovic, Milosevic’s widow, who lives in Moscow. That would in effect prevent her from returning to Serbia for his funeral if it were held there.

The location of the funeral was in question Sunday, with speculation that it might be held in Moscow. For both Milosevic’s family and the Serbian government, many of whose members were staunch opponents of Milosevic, there would be political advantages in holding the funeral outside Serbia.

The Serbian government wants to avoid presenting ultranationalists with an opportunity to turn the funeral into a political rally and show of strength. Markovic has said she would prefer he be buried in Russia because his own country had betrayed him by ousting him from power and handing him over to The Hague. Only his daughter, Marija, still lives in Serbia and Montenegro. Son Marko shuttles between former Soviet republics, where he is believed to be hiding from organized crime figures in the Balkans for allegedly cheating them of millions of dollars.

In Belgrade, the capital of the country and the republic, as well as other cities that were once nationalist strongholds in Serbia and Bosnia, crowds of people carrying flowers and candles walked through a chill rain to show their respect for their late former president. Flags flew at half-staff outside the Belgrade headquarters of the Socialist Party. In Bijeljina, a large and hard-line Serbian town in Bosnia, supporters put up posters with Milosevic’s photograph and the words “Heroes Never Die.”

However, in Belgrade there was also a silent war of the roses between Milosevic’s supporters and detractors. At the impromptu memorial for Milosevic, mourners heaped red roses, the color of the Socialist Party. But in the Alley of Heroes in Belgrade’s main cemetery where former Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is buried, mourners heaped yellow roses, the color of his Democratic party, marking the third anniversary of Djindjic’s assassination.

Djindjic was a key figure in driving Milosevic from power in 2000 and handing him to The Hague the following year. On Sunday, the Serbian government, which still influences the media, broadcast a memorial service held by Djindjic’s party as well as specials on his life. It appeared to be an effort to make the former prime minister prominent in the public consciousness rather than allow coverage of Milosevic to dominate the airwaves.

*

Times staff writer Rubin reported from Vienna and special correspondent Cirjakovic from Belgrade.