Questions Surround Milosevic Death, Legacy

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

The body of Slobodan Milosevic is being released to his family today or tomorrow and will be buried in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The former Yugoslav president and war crimes defendant died on Saturday in his cell in the Hague. The U.N. War Crimes Tribunal announced that the cause was a heart attack. But Milosevic was apparently taking medication his doctors had not prescribed. The death of Milosevic leaves his victims believing justice has been thwarted, and it leaves his fellow Serbs divided over his legacy.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli is in Belgrade and she joins me now. And Sylvia, Milosevic has not been well for a long time, and his four-year trial was frequently interrupted because of his health problems. So his fellow Serbs are also asking, you know, why he died.

SYLVIA POGGIOLI reporting:

Absolutely. In fact, you know, a month ago he had asked to go to Russia for special treatment, but the tribunal denied it. Now, all the newspapers here are giving lots of coverage to a letter Milosevic's lawyer said his client wrote to the Russian Embassy just the day before his died. According to the lawyer, Milosevic believed he was being poisoned, and in fact a test two weeks ago had shown traces in Milosevic's blood of an antibiotic used for leprosy and tuberculosis and which apparently blunts the effect of medicines Milosevic had been prescribed by his doctors for his heart and blood pressure problems.

In his letter, Milosevic said he had never taken any antibiotics in five years. The letter and the blood tests raise enormous questions, so even in death Milosevic succeeds in leaving a trail of turmoil.

MONTAGNE: And questions about how he died aside, what's been the reaction there in Belgrade to the news of his death?

POGGIOLI: Well, I'd say the reaction here has been very muted. Here in the capital, a few hundred elderly people gathered yesterday at his Socialist Party headquarters and lit candles. You know, keep in mind that Belgrade was never a Milosevic stronghold. His base was in the rural countryside. There's also a sense of frustration that Milosevic was never brought to trial here to answer for the crimes he committed in Serbia. And while there is very little nostalgia from Milosevic, there's also a widespread suspicion toward the tribunal in the Hague. It's seen as anti-Serb; and you'll hear many Serbs speak bitterly that Milosevic is the fourth Serb to die in prison in the Hague.

Political analyst Braza Grubichitz(ph) says that paradoxically in the eyes of many Serbs, Milosevic in death may be seen as a martyr.

MONTAGNE: And the current Serbian president has ruled out a state funeral for Milosevic, former president there. Will there be a funeral?

POGGIOLI: Well, this funeral raises big problems. The Nationalists and Milosevic's Socialists not only want him buried here in Serbia, as you said, they want him buried as a hero. And the Socialist votes in Parliament are crucial to the precarious government of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.

Then there's the problem of Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic, who now lives in Russia and is wanted here on corruption charges. The Socialists have proposed that she be pardoned, and that idea was totally rejected by the President Boris Tadic. You know, the mood here might turn again to nationalistic isolation and make it even harder for the Kostunica government to bow to Western pressure and hand over to the Tribunal the fugitive war criminal Ratko Mladic. The EU has given Serbia a deadline at the end of this month to hand him over.

So right now Serbia is engaged in difficult negotiations that are likely to lead to the independence of the Province of Kosovo; and it faces the possibility of a further shrinking with an independence referendum in May, in tiny Montenegro, which is the only remaining partner in what was once Yugoslavia. So Milosevic's death could not have come at a worst time for Serbia, which risks further international isolation.

MONTAGNE: Sylvia, thank you.

POGGIOLI: Thank you, Renee.

MONTAGNE: NPR's Sylvia Poggioli in Belgrade.

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