[Mb-civic] Slobodan Milosevic Found Dead in his Prison Cell in The Hague - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Slobodan Milosevic Found Dead in his Prison Cell in The Hague

The Washington Post (Associated Press)
Saturday, March 11, 2006; 8:15 AM

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav 
leader who orchestrated the Balkan wars of the 1990s and was on trial 
for war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell near The Hague, the 
U.N. tribunal said Saturday.

Milosevic, 64, apparently died of natural causes, a tribunal press 
officer said. He was found dead in his bed at the U.N. detention center.

Milosevic has been on trial since February 2002, defending himself 
against 66 counts of crimes, including genocide, in Croatia, Bosnia and 
Kosovo.

The trial repeatedly was interrupted by Milosevic's poor health and 
chronic heart condition. It was recessed last week until Tuesday to 
await his next defense witness.

His death comes less than a week after the star witness in his trial, 
former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, was found dead in the same 
prison. Babic, who was serving a 13-year prison sentence, committed 
suicide. He testified against Milosevic in 2002.

A figure of beguiling charm and cunning ruthlessness, Milosevic was a 
master tactician who turned his country's defeats into personal 
victories and held onto power for 13 years despite losing four wars that 
shattered his nation and impoverished his people.

Milosevic led Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, into four Balkan 
wars, but always managed to emerge politically stronger. The secret of 
his survival was his uncanny ability to exploit what less adroit figures 
would consider a fatal blow.

Each time he would bounce back, skillfully reinventing himself in a 
series of political transformations -- as a devout communist, a 
reform-minded nationalist, and again as a communist at a time when most 
of the world had abandoned Marxist ideology.

He once described himself as the "Ayatollah Khomeini of Serbia," 
assuring his prime minister, Milan Panic, that "the Serbs will follow me 
no matter what." For years, they did -- through wars which dismembered 
Yugoslavia and plunged what was left of the country into social, 
political, moral and economic ruin.

But in the end, his people abandoned him: first in October 2000, when he 
was unable to convince the majority of Yugoslavs that he had staved off 
electoral defeat by his successor, Vojislav Kostunica, and again on 
April 1, 2001, when he surrendered after a 26-hour standoff to face 
criminal charges stemming from his ruinous rule.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/11/AR2006031100463.html?nav=hcmodule
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