The Butchger of the Balkan is dead

[KinKyJ]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CNN) -- Tests on blood taken from Slobodan Milosevic before he died showed traces of a drug that counters the effect of high blood pressure medicine, a Dutch toxicologist said Monday.

The tests -- conducted two weeks ago -- showed traces of rifampicin, a drug against leprosy and tuberculosis that would have made other medicines ineffective, Reuters quoted Groningen University toxicologist Donald Uges as saying.

Uges told The Associated Press he was asked to inspect the sample after Milosevic's blood pressure failed to respond to medication given by doctors at the U.N. detention center near The Hague, where he was being held during his war crimes trial.

Uges said rifampicin "makes the liver extremely active. If you're taking something (another medication) it breaks down very quickly," he told AP.

Uges told Reuters he believed Milosevic took the drugs himself to try to prove that his medical care at The Hague was inadequate in an attempt to go to Russia for specialist medical treatment.

Last month, the war crimes tribunal rejected his request to travel to Moscow for treatment.

"I am so sure there is no murder. There is not any reason for that," Reuters quoted Uges as saying.

"I don't think he took his medicines for suicide -- only for his trip to Moscow. When he was in Moscow he would be free. That is where his friends and family are. I think that was his last possibility to escape the Hague," Uges said.

Preliminary autopsy results released late Sunday indicated that the former Yugoslav president died of a heart attack, according to a spokeswoman for the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Two pathologists from Belgrade attended the autopsy and gave the tribunal a summary, said spokeswoman Alexandra Milenov.

"According to the pathologists, the cause of death was a myocardial infarction," or heart attack, she said.

The pathologists also said two heart conditions the former leader suffered from "would explain the myocardial infarction," according to Milenov.

Still, she stressed, the cause of death was preliminary, and a toxicology report would still be carried out. She said a final report would not be complete for several days.

Full story

Bad news imo: for the bastard it was the easy way out and now the inegrity of the Hague Court will be questioned until they find the real reason for his death. If you ask me, it's suicide made look like murder...

[Jenks]

Re: The Butchger of the Balkan is dead

good riddance.

[Yao]

Re: The Butchger of the Balkan is dead

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CNN) -- Tests on blood taken from Slobodan Milosevic before he died showed traces of a drug that counters the effect of high blood pressure medicine, a Dutch toxicologist said Monday.

The tests -- conducted two weeks ago -- showed traces of rifampicin, a drug against leprosy and tuberculosis that would have made other medicines ineffective, Reuters quoted Groningen University toxicologist Donald Uges as saying.

Uges told The Associated Press he was asked to inspect the sample after Milosevic's blood pressure failed to respond to medication given by doctors at the U.N. detention center near The Hague, where he was being held during his war crimes trial.

Uges said rifampicin "makes the liver extremely active. If you're taking something (another medication) it breaks down very quickly," he told AP.

Uges told Reuters he believed Milosevic took the drugs himself to try to prove that his medical care at The Hague was inadequate in an attempt to go to Russia for specialist medical treatment.

Last month, the war crimes tribunal rejected his request to travel to Moscow for treatment.

"I am so sure there is no murder. There is not any reason for that," Reuters quoted Uges as saying.

"I don't think he took his medicines for suicide -- only for his trip to Moscow. When he was in Moscow he would be free. That is where his friends and family are. I think that was his last possibility to escape the Hague," Uges said.

Preliminary autopsy results released late Sunday indicated that the former Yugoslav president died of a heart attack, according to a spokeswoman for the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Two pathologists from Belgrade attended the autopsy and gave the tribunal a summary, said spokeswoman Alexandra Milenov.

"According to the pathologists, the cause of death was a myocardial infarction," or heart attack, she said.

The pathologists also said two heart conditions the former leader suffered from "would explain the myocardial infarction," according to Milenov.

Still, she stressed, the cause of death was preliminary, and a toxicology report would still be carried out. She said a final report would not be complete for several days.

Full story

Bad news imo: for the bastard it was the easy way out and now the inegrity of the Hague Court will be questioned until they find the real reason for his death. If you ask me, it's suicide made look like murder...

I agree. They'll try everything to blame the court anyway, anyhow.

[KinKyJ]

Re: The Butcher of the Balkan is dead

Yep, the soap has already begun: Sergei Lavrov, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, announced that Russian doctors will perform a new autopsy on the body because "Russia has the right to doubt the results of the autopsy performed by the toxicologist appointed by the Hague Court." A team of Russian doctors is standing by to leave for The Hague tomorrow morning.

Mind you that the Dutch doctor performing the autopsy is already assisted by a Serbian colleague. So much for the unity of the international community and upholding the credibility of the Court... No, the Russians rather damage the reputation of the Court by sticking to their old alliance with their ex-communist buddy. Nice signal to give to the thousands of victims, alive and dead, of his regime...

Meanwhile Milosovic' lawyer throws some more oil on the conspiracy theory fire:

Lawyer: Milosevic did not alter medication

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CNN) -- A lawyer for Slobodan Milosevic has denied news reports that the former leader of Yugoslavia altered his medication to discredit medical care at a Dutch detention center and be allowed to seek treatment in Russia.

Zdenko Tomanovic said Monday that the 64-year-old Milosevic, who died Saturday in his cell, did not medicate himself with the drug rifampicin -- used in the treatment of leprosy and tuberculosis.


"Mr. Milosevic said he had never used any medicine against leprosy or tuberculosis," Tomanovic told CNN in The Hague, where Milosevic was on trial for war crimes from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.


"He asked, 'How are they finding in my blood this drug if I have never used this drug?'"
Earlier Monday, wire services quoted a Dutch toxicologist as saying he had found rifampicin in Milosevic's bloodstream in tests conducted earlier this year.


The toxicologist, Donald Uges of Groningen University, also said that doctors at the detention center had concluded Milosevic had obtained the powerful bacteriocidal antibiotic and had been administering it himself.


Rifampicin is known to reduce the effectiveness of blood pressure medication.

Full story

Milosovic' request to get treatment in Moscow had very little or no medical grounds. It was the last possible option to flee further prosecution.


Spicy detail: Milosevic has a family history of suicide: both his father and mother as well as uncle he was very close to blew out their own candles... In his book Milosevic and Markovic, the Serbian journalist Slavoljub Djukic even described Milosovic himself as a suicidal personality and an opportunist.