BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro — Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was found dead Saturday in the prison cell where he had spent his final years facing trial on genocide and war crimes charges for his role in the nationalist wars that racked the Balkans in the 1990s.
His death in the Netherlands before the long-running trial could end is certain to haunt the region: His victims believe that justice has been thwarted, and his fellow Serbs are divided between those who want to forget the past and those who think Milosevic was himself a victim of an unfair international court.
Within hours of his death, apparently of natural causes, Serbian radio and television aired an interview with his lawyer, who said that Milosevic believed he was being poisoned.
The assertions made it all but inevitable that the Serbs' sense of victimhood will continue to shadow the region and make unlikely any full reckoning with the past.
Milosevic, 64, had been on trial since 2002 at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on genocide charges for the "ethnic cleansing" campaign in Bosnia-Herzegovina and on charges of crimes against humanity and other war crimes for his role in the conflicts in Croatia and Kosovo.
Chief United Nations war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said she regretted Milosevic's death because she believed she would have won a conviction.
"I also regret it for the victims, the thousands of victims, who have been waiting for justice," Del Ponte told the German-language Swiss Television DRS.
Milosevic had a history of poor health, including high blood pressure and a chronic heart condition. His four-year trial was often interrupted by his illnesses, and the trial schedule had been sharply curtailed because of his health. Court officials said that there was no evidence of suicide and that an autopsy had been ordered.
"Milosevic was found lifeless in his bed in his cell," the tribunal said in a statement. "The guard immediately alerted the detention unit officer in command and the medical officer. The latter confirmed that Slobodan Milosevic was dead."
The Russian news agency Interfax quoted Borislav Milosevic as saying that the tribunal was "entirely responsible" for his brother's death. Fearing the former leader would not return to the court if he sought treatment abroad, the tribunal last month denied him permission to see doctors in Russia.
