Serbia urged to continue co-operation with tribunal

The death of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic does not absolve Serbia of responsibility to hand over war crimes suspects from the Balkan wars of the 1990s, the European Union said today.

“Politically for Belgrade, (the death of Milosevic) does not alter in any way the need to come to terms with the legacy of the Balkan wars,” said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

Milosevic had recently asked the tribunal to be released temporarily to go to Moscow for treatment at a heart clinic. The tribunal rejected the request, fearing he would not return to complete his trial.

Milosevic was examined by doctors following his frequent complaints of fatigue or ill health, but the tribunal could not immediately say when he last underwent a medical checkup. All detainees at the UN centre in Scheveningen are checked by a guard every half hour.

Steven Kay, a British lawyer who had been assigned to represent Milosevic, said today that the former Serb leader would not have fled, and was not suicidal.

“He said to me: ’I haven’t taken on all this work just to walk away from it and not come back. I want to see this case through,”’ Kay told the BBC.

“It is pity he didn’t live to the end of the trial to get the sentence he deserved,” Croatian President Stipe Mesic said.

The tribunal said Milosevic’s family had been informed of his death. His wife, Mirjana Markovic, who was often accused of being the power behind the scenes during her husband’s autocratic rule in the 1990s, has been in self-imposed exile in Russia since 2003.

His son, Marko, also lives in Russia, and his daughter, Marija, lives in Serb-controlled half of Bosnia.