Global Policy Forum

Slobodan Milosevic, branded the "butcher of the Balkans" for conflicts that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, was found dead in his cell on Saturday, only months before a verdict was due in his war crimes trial. "Milosevic was found lifeless on his bed in his cell," the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague said in a statement. The court said a prison medical officer confirmed the 64-year-old former Yugoslav president, who suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure, was dead.

A tribunal spokeswoman said there was no indication Milosevic had committed suicide. She said the trial, which had already lasted four years, would end now he was dead. But Milosevic's lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic told reporters his client had feared he was being poisoned and said he had made a formal request for the autopsy to take place in Moscow. The tribunal rejected the request, saying a pathologist from Serbia would attend the autopsy on Sunday. A silver hearse with a police escort was seen leaving the prison on Saturday evening.

Milosevic's poor health had repeatedly interrupted his trial. Last month, the court - sitting three days a week to allow Milosevic to rest - rejected his bid to go to Russia for medical treatment, noting the trial was almost over. Russia and Yugoslavia were close allies and Moscow opposed NATO's bombing campaign to stop Serb attacks on Kosovo Albanians that led to his overthrow in 2000 after 10 years in power.

Milosevic rose to the top of Yugoslav politics in the power vacuum left by the death of Yugoslavia's post-World War Two dictator Marshal Josip Broz Tito in 1980. "With the death of Milosevic, one of the main actors, if not the main actor, in the Balkan wars of the late 20th century has left the scene," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters, adding Milosevic had died of natural causes.

Milosevic was charged with 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo as he sought to carve out a "Greater Serbia" in the 1990s. It was Europe's most significant war crimes trial since top Nazis were tried in Nuremberg after World War Two. The charges against him included involvement in the siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 Bosnia war and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the U.N. "safe area" of Srebrenica, Europe's worst single atrocity since World War Two. He had branded his war crimes trial a "distortion of history" and blamed the West for fuelling Yugoslavia's collapse.

His was the second death at the detention centre within a week after former rebel Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic committed suicide. A former ally of Milosevic already convicted for war crimes, Babic was a key witness against the former Yugoslav leader, accusing him of bringing shame on Serbs. Milosevic's death will raise questions over supervision at the detention centre and stoke criticism that proceedings were too long compared with the one-year life of Nuremberg and the more limited scope of the trial of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

"The death of Slobodan Milosevic, a few weeks before the completion of his trial, will prevent justice to be done in his case," chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said in a statement. But she said others must be punished for the crimes Milosevic was accused of and said six war crimes suspects still at large, including former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, must be arrested. European Union foreign ministers reminded Serbia on Saturday it must arrest the fugitives or risk its bid to join the bloc.

Kasim Cerkezi, a Kosovo Albanian who lost six members of his family in a Serb assault in 1999, said he had been denied justice by Milosevic's death. "His punishment could not bring back my son, but it would be a drop of satisfaction in a sea of pain," said Cerkezi.

Looking pale and with his white hair swept back, Milosevic said last month his health was worsening and he was hearing noises in his head. Judges ordered a new doctor's examination. Milosevic's wife Mirjana, his high-school sweetheart often described as the driving force behind his career, blamed the court. "The tribunal has killed my husband," she told CNN.

Milosevic's death occurred at a difficult time for Serbia with Kosovo poised to win independence and Montenegro also set to vote on a split from Belgrade in a referendum in May.

Hardline Serbian nationalist parties described Milosevic as a hero betrayed by sell-outs among his own people and said he should be buried in the national heroes' cemetery. But there was little sign of grief in Belgrade. A single wreath and two candles were placed at the headquarters of his Socialist Party and a handful of mourners displayed posters.