Slobodan Milosevic Found Dead in The Hague

Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia who was widely seen as the principal architect of the bloody Balkan wars of the 1990s, was found dead today in his cell at a United Nations detention centre in The Hague.  His death brings an abrupt end to his four-year-old trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes -- a trial that was initially proclaimed as a landmark event in the evolution of international justice, but that also came to symbolize the difficulties inherent in prosecuting high-profile defendants before international courts.

According to a statement from the United Nations war crimes tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia, Milosevic's body was discovered by guards during their morning rounds.  Sources from the tribunal have told reporters that there were no indications that his death was due to anything but natural causes.  Milosevic has long suffered from high blood pressure and heart problems; his trial was repeatedly delayed because of his poor health.  An autopsy will be conducted on Sunday March 12.

Milosevic went on trial in February 2002, charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection to the wars in Croatia and Kosovo, and with the same crimes as well as genocide in relation to the war in Bosnia.  Prosecutors alleged that in Bosnia Milosevic had taken part in a joint criminal enterprise to remove the majority of non-Serbs from the country's territory through a process of ethnic cleansing, and that the crimes that took place there had been either part of the plan or a foreseeable consequence of it. 

The prosecution concluded its case in February 2004, and Milosevic began his defence in August.  Throughout the trial, Milosevic acted as his own lawyer, though the court also appointed lawyers to act on Milosevic's behalf.  His defence was due to conclude in the next two months, and a verdict in the trial was considered likely by the end of this year.

Less than a week ago, Milan Babic, a former leader of the Croatian Serbs who had been sentenced to 13 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to war crimes and who was testifying in another trial, killed himself in his cell at the U.N. detention centre.

Related chapters from Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know:

Bosnia

Genocide

Persecutions on Political, Racial or Religious Grounds

Related Links:

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Coalition for International Justice

The Hague Tribunal After Milosevic

By Anthony Dworkin

OpenDemocracy, March 14, 2006

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