OMEN
03-15-2006, 01:20 PM
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Mr Milosevic's body lay overnight in the morgue at Schiphol airport
The body of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is shortly due to be flown from the Netherlands to Belgrade.
Mr Milosevic's body will go on display in the Serbian capital, ahead of a burial in his home town of Pozarevac on Saturday, officials from his party say.
Earlier, a Russian doctor reviewing the results of an autopsy conducted on Mr Milosevic agreed with Dutch doctors that he died of a heart attack.
However, the expert concluded that his death could have been prevented.
This would be only natural for a man who had led the country for such a long period
[B]Milorad Vucelic
Serbian Socialist party vice-president
"That's my opinion, that his death was preventable. Absolutely. Because he had a pathology which is treated at any place in the world at the moment," Leo Bokeria, director of Russia's Bakulev Cardio-Vascular Centre, told reporters in The Hague before returning to Moscow.
Mr Milosevic's family has accused the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague of causing the former president's death by refusing to allow him to travel to Russia for medical treatment.
Mr Milosevic's son Marko has travelled to The Hague from Moscow to accompany the body, which lay overnight in the morgue at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam.
Nationalist rallying point?
The decision to hold the funeral in Serbia ends days of wrangling over Mr Milosevic's final resting place.
Marko Milosevic had been pushing for a burial in Serbia and had accused the authorities of trying to prevent it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/europe_reaction_on_belgrade0s_streets/img/laun.jpg
Reaction on Belgrade's streets
The news that Mr Milosevic's body would after all be returned to Serbia was announced on state television in Belgrade on Tuesday night by Milorad Vucelic, a long-standing friend of the former president and now vice-president of his party.
Earlier, Mr Vucelic told the BBC that his party insisted on a funeral in Mr Milosevic's homeland.
"That would be only natural for a man who had led the country for such a long period," he said. The former president led Serbia through the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
However, there are fears the event could trigger an outpouring of nationalist emotion.
The far-right opposition Radical Party has threatened to bring 100,000 sympathisers to Belgrade airport to welcome the arrival of Mr Milosevic's body.
Marko Milosevic, who believes his father was murdered, had earlier said he might consider a funeral in Moscow if his mother's safety could not be guaranteed in Serbia.
Mr Milosevic's widow, Mira Markovic, has been living in self-imposed exile in Russia, fearing arrest on fraud charges if she returns to Serbia.
Assassination questions
But Tuesday's decision by a Belgrade court to suspend an arrest warrant against her means she could now potentially attend a funeral in the Serbian capital.
Marko Milosevic (left) with Milosevic's lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic
Marko Milosevic collected his father's remains from The Hague
The court has, however, said that she must surrender her passport on arrival and appear before a judge in connection with the fraud charges on 23 March.
Lawyers have posted a bond worth $18,000 (£10,000) to guarantee her appearance in court to face relatively minor corruption charges.
Police also want to question her about the assassination in 2000 of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic - a political rival of her late husband.
Full results from an autopsy conducted on Mr Milosevic by Dutch authorities on Sunday are still awaited, but a toxicologist who found traces of drugs in Mr Milosevic's blood two weeks before his death said they may have neutralised treatment for his heart conditions.
The findings have not been confirmed, but have raised questions over what caused Mr Milosevic's heart attack.
The international war crimes tribunal insists Mr Milosevic received competent medical supervision.
'Karadzic raids'
In a separate development, international peacekeepers in Bosnia have carried out a series of raids on businesses and premises believed to be supporting the war crimes fugitive and former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
The operation, involving more than 150 peacekeepers from the European Union peacekeepers and Nato took place in the town of Prnjavor in northern Bosnia.
Mr Karadzic, who has been indicted for genocide by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, has been on the run for nearly a decade.
The BBC's Nick Hawton in Sarajevo says the death of Mr Milosevic has re-focused attention on the continuing individuals wanted by The Hague, including Mr Karadzic and his former military chief General Ratko Mladic.
BBC
Mr Milosevic's body lay overnight in the morgue at Schiphol airport
The body of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is shortly due to be flown from the Netherlands to Belgrade.
Mr Milosevic's body will go on display in the Serbian capital, ahead of a burial in his home town of Pozarevac on Saturday, officials from his party say.
Earlier, a Russian doctor reviewing the results of an autopsy conducted on Mr Milosevic agreed with Dutch doctors that he died of a heart attack.
However, the expert concluded that his death could have been prevented.
This would be only natural for a man who had led the country for such a long period
[B]Milorad Vucelic
Serbian Socialist party vice-president
"That's my opinion, that his death was preventable. Absolutely. Because he had a pathology which is treated at any place in the world at the moment," Leo Bokeria, director of Russia's Bakulev Cardio-Vascular Centre, told reporters in The Hague before returning to Moscow.
Mr Milosevic's family has accused the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague of causing the former president's death by refusing to allow him to travel to Russia for medical treatment.
Mr Milosevic's son Marko has travelled to The Hague from Moscow to accompany the body, which lay overnight in the morgue at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam.
Nationalist rallying point?
The decision to hold the funeral in Serbia ends days of wrangling over Mr Milosevic's final resting place.
Marko Milosevic had been pushing for a burial in Serbia and had accused the authorities of trying to prevent it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/europe_reaction_on_belgrade0s_streets/img/laun.jpg
Reaction on Belgrade's streets
The news that Mr Milosevic's body would after all be returned to Serbia was announced on state television in Belgrade on Tuesday night by Milorad Vucelic, a long-standing friend of the former president and now vice-president of his party.
Earlier, Mr Vucelic told the BBC that his party insisted on a funeral in Mr Milosevic's homeland.
"That would be only natural for a man who had led the country for such a long period," he said. The former president led Serbia through the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
However, there are fears the event could trigger an outpouring of nationalist emotion.
The far-right opposition Radical Party has threatened to bring 100,000 sympathisers to Belgrade airport to welcome the arrival of Mr Milosevic's body.
Marko Milosevic, who believes his father was murdered, had earlier said he might consider a funeral in Moscow if his mother's safety could not be guaranteed in Serbia.
Mr Milosevic's widow, Mira Markovic, has been living in self-imposed exile in Russia, fearing arrest on fraud charges if she returns to Serbia.
Assassination questions
But Tuesday's decision by a Belgrade court to suspend an arrest warrant against her means she could now potentially attend a funeral in the Serbian capital.
Marko Milosevic (left) with Milosevic's lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic
Marko Milosevic collected his father's remains from The Hague
The court has, however, said that she must surrender her passport on arrival and appear before a judge in connection with the fraud charges on 23 March.
Lawyers have posted a bond worth $18,000 (£10,000) to guarantee her appearance in court to face relatively minor corruption charges.
Police also want to question her about the assassination in 2000 of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic - a political rival of her late husband.
Full results from an autopsy conducted on Mr Milosevic by Dutch authorities on Sunday are still awaited, but a toxicologist who found traces of drugs in Mr Milosevic's blood two weeks before his death said they may have neutralised treatment for his heart conditions.
The findings have not been confirmed, but have raised questions over what caused Mr Milosevic's heart attack.
The international war crimes tribunal insists Mr Milosevic received competent medical supervision.
'Karadzic raids'
In a separate development, international peacekeepers in Bosnia have carried out a series of raids on businesses and premises believed to be supporting the war crimes fugitive and former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
The operation, involving more than 150 peacekeepers from the European Union peacekeepers and Nato took place in the town of Prnjavor in northern Bosnia.
Mr Karadzic, who has been indicted for genocide by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, has been on the run for nearly a decade.
The BBC's Nick Hawton in Sarajevo says the death of Mr Milosevic has re-focused attention on the continuing individuals wanted by The Hague, including Mr Karadzic and his former military chief General Ratko Mladic.
BBC