The United Nations war crimes tribunal on Friday fended off speculation that former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was poisoned in its custody, citing provisional tests which showed no signs of foul play.
Toxicological tests found “no indication of poisoning” nor any presence in his blood of rifampicin, a strong antibiotic that could have neutralised his medication for high blood pressure, tribunal chief Fausto Pocar said.
Other drugs were found in the samples tested, he told a press conference in The Hague, but “not in toxic quantities”.
The Dutch Forensic Institute had on Monday pinpointed the immediate cause of his death two days earlier as a heart attack, but did not say what brought it on, allowing Milosevic’s supporters to voice suspicions of poisoning.
He had himself claimed in a letter revealed after his death that he feared he was at risk, while a Dutch expert who examined his blood two weeks earlier said Milosevic may have deliberately taken rifampicin to win a “one-way ticket to Moscow” for treatment.
“So far no indications of poisoning have been found,” Pocar said, nor “so far” of the presence of rifampicin.
The Dutch public prosecutor’s office stressed they were provisional results and more information would emerge at the end of next week.
It said the forensic institute had pointed out that rifampicin disappeared quickly from the body “and the fact that no traces were found implies only that it is not likely that the rifampicin had been ingested or administered in the last few days before death.”
Hans Holthuis, registrar of the detention centre where Milosevic was held, also said “contraband” was found in his cell, but refused to give details.
In Serbia, preparations continued for the funeral amid sharp criticism of his autocratic regime as a counter-point to the eulogies from supporters.
Milosevic will be buried on Saturday in the grounds of his home in Pozarevac, east of Belgrade, under a tree where he first kissed his wife.
It was still unclear whether his widow, Mira Markovic, would attend, with Russian Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov saying as he arrived here that the Serbian government had failed to guarantee she would not be arrested.
“It is enough that Marko has lost his father, he should not lose his mother as well,” he told reporters.
A Belgrade court on Tuesday revoked a warrant for her arrest, but ordered her to surrender her passport and report to a court on March 23.
The former strongman was on trial at The Hague on more than 60 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity when he died.
As his coffin went on display for a second day, critics slammed his regime and called for a rally in Belgrade to coincide with the funeral.
A bitter obituary, among otherwise glowing tributes, appeared in Politika, Serbia’s oldest daily, recalling the blood, horror and ruined lives, citing the Balkan wars, the Srebrenica massacre, tanks on the streets of Belgrade and the Kosovo conflict.
“Thank you for your cheating and theft, for every drop of blood thousands spilled because of you, for the fear and uncertainty, for failed lives and generations, dreams that never came true, for the horrors and wars you led on our behalf without asking us, for the entire burden you placed on our backs,” the notice read.
Separately, a telephone text message is circulating calling for a protest rally on Saturday in the Belgrade square where opponents demonstrated during the 1990s.
“Spring is coming three days early,” it reads. “Come to join us to wish all together that Milosevic never happens again.”
The message is thought to come from a student movement that was a key force in the uprising that toppled Milosevic in October 2000.
His supporters continued to pay respects at Belgrade’s Revolution Museum, where his coffin lies on a stand, draped in a Serbian flag and surrounded by roses, in a drab room once used to honour the dictator Josip Broz Tito.
Several thousand filed past on Thursday and more lined up Friday, although a far cry from massed rallies of his heyday.
Milosevic “deserved more than this,” said a woman in her 50s, identifying herself only as a former bank clerk.
Even that display caused controversy. The head of the museum branded it a political stunt and said she had not been consulted, and more than 20 cultural institutions issued a statement in support of her. — AFP