The sudden death before verdict of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic while on trial for war crimes has disappointed many and dealt a blow to the Hague tribunal, reports Tamam Ahmed Jama from the Hague Reviled by many as "the Butcher of the Balkans", Slobodan Milosevic presided over four wars, all of which he lost, and the bitter break-up of the Yugoslav federation. He has gone down in history as the man who orchestrated the bloodiest conflict in Europe in 50 years -- the Balkan wars of the 1990s in which an estimated 250,000 people lost their lives. The phrase "ethnic cleansing" entered the lexicon as a result of his policies. Milosevic did not die at the helm of the Greater Serbia of which he dreamed, and over which he allegedly initiated so many wars and accepted so much bloodletting. Instead, the former Yugoslav president drew his last breath in a prison cell in the Hague, the Netherlands, while on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity. He was laid to rest in a makeshift grave dug in the backyard of his own house after his remains were repatriated from the Netherlands. "Nowhere on our planet are people being buried in their backyards," Milosevic's daughter, Marija, told the Associated Press, lamenting the undignified burial of the former leader who died a diminished, indicted war criminal. Die-hard Serb nationalists, though, did their best to give their former leader a fitting farewell. About 20,000 mourners gathered in Milosevic's home town of Pozarevac, 50km south of Belgrade, where he was buried on Saturday. Earlier on the same day, tens of thousands of supporters assembled in a square outside the federal parliament of Serbia and Montenegro where Milosevic's body -- which was not allowed to lie in state inside -- was laid out while ultra- nationalists chanted words of praise for the man they considered a hero. It was a far cry from the size of the crowds that Milosevic used to draw during his heyday. Most Serbs, who regarded the former autocratic leader with disdain and blamed him for destroying their country, were simply not in a mood to mourn Milosevic. Many were even disgusted by the fact that he was being mourned at all. "All of Belgrade's squares would be too small for all the victims of Milosevic and his rule," Vuk Draskovic, the foreign minister of Serbia and Montenegro, said -- denouncing the outpouring of nationalist sentiments for a man many did not see as deserving of any tribute. "A murderer and his crimes were glorified today." Milosevic's funeral was organised by his floundering Socialist Party of Serbia -- which seized the moment to turn the death of its former head into political capital. The government decided against granting state funeral for a man who was indicted for some of the most egregious crimes known to man, including genocide. No official of the current government attended the funeral. The former Yugoslav president faced 66 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of the laws or customs of war in connection with the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s. He was accused of involvement in murder, imprisonment and subjection to inhumane living conditions and forced labour of thousands of Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat and other non- Serb civilians, including women and elderly persons. Prosecutors at the Hague war crimes tribunal were trying to prove Milosevic's culpability through command responsibility and involvement in a joint criminal enterprise. The gravest charge that Milosevic faced related to genocide in Bosnia. An incident that took place in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 stands out in this regard. Serb forces overran what was supposed to be a UN safe haven and massacred 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. It was the worst single atrocity Europe had seen since the Second World War. "It is a pity that we will not see him facing justice, that we will not hear the verdict," said Hajra Catic, spokeswoman for an association representing the mothers and widows of the Srebrenica massacre. "However, it seems that God punished him already." Catic lost her husband and son. Also reacting to Milosevic's death, the Croatian government issued this statement: "Several hundred thousand dead, millions of refugees, billions of euros of damage, dozens of destroyed towns, ethnic cleansing, genocide -- those are all consequences of his policies." Milosevic was ousted in 2000 after 13 years in power. He was arrested the following year and handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, the Dutch capital. His trial began in February 2002. He was found dead in his cell at a UN prison near the Hague on 11 March. An autopsy conducted at the Netherlands Forensic Instituted concluded that he died of a heart attack. Milosevic, who was 64, suffered from high blood pressure and a heart condition. His ill- health led to frequent interruptions in his trial. He did not trust UN doctors at the Hague and said he was afraid of being poisoned. Three weeks prior to his death, he asked to be allowed to go to Moscow for medical treatment. Fearing that he may flee if released, the tribunal turned down his request -- despite assurances from the Russians to deliver Milosevic to the Hague tribunal once treated. Milosevic's poor health may have been compounded by the stress of preparing his defence. Having refused to acknowledge and cooperate with defence counsels the court had assigned him, he was representing himself. His trial was scheduled to wrap up in May and a verdict was expected by the end of the year. The charges against him were dropped following his death. A Dutch toxicologist who examined a blood sample taken from Milosevic said he found traces of a drug that neutralises the effects of his heart medication. The unprescribed, mystery medication that Milosevic was apparently taking has created a controversy -- with Milosevic's family and supporters claiming he was poisoned. Toxicology tests, however, found no trace of poison or unprescribed drug in an amount that could have caused his death. The no-verdict outcome of Milosevic's trial was a huge disappointment for those who wanted to establish an authentic historical record of and assign blame for the bloody Balkan wars of the 1990s. The UN chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said she regreted Milosevic's sudden departure when the end was so near. "We [were] reaching the end of that trial," she said. "It is regrettable for all the witnesses, for all the survivors, for all the victims who [were] expecting justice." She added that she was convinced that, had the trial reached its natural conclusion, Milosevic would have been convicted of the horrendous crimes of which he was accused, as the evidence against him was overwhelming. Gregory Stanton, president of the Washington-based Genocide Watch, said the fact that Milosevic's trial was allowed to drag on for so long is partly to blame for the inclusive outcome. "Justice delayed truly was justice denied in this case," Stanton told Al-Ahram Weekly. He said that because there was no definitive verdict in Milosevic's case, there will always be denial on the part of Serb nationalists regarding the former leader's involvement in the grave crimes of which he was accused. Ultra-nationalists will likely go a step further and seek to create a myth about Milosevic, trying to turn him into a political martyr. "They are already doing that, saying that he was poisoned, that he was murdered," Stanton said. "It is ironic that a mass murderer responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people can be turned into a martyr." While some say the tribunal had been slow and inefficient, others say the trial was bound to take a long time because of the nature of the crimes of which Milosevic was accused. "These are massive crimes, committed in multiple conflicts that needed to be proven beyond reasonable doubt," Goran Sluiter, a professor of international criminal law at the University of Amsterdam, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Proving genocide and crimes against humanity is not a light matter and Milosevic challenged every aspect of the prosecution's case -- insisting that witnesses be brought to the court so that he could cross-examine them instead of accepting written statements. That takes a lot of time." Sluiter said although the outcome of the trial was a huge disappointment, the trial itself has been worthwhile. "The no-verdict outcome is a serious blow to the court and its opponents will find ammunition in it," he said. "But this is unfair and does not do justice to the important work that the tribunal has accomplished. This has been a unique precedent- setting case and the evidence collected in Milosevic's trial will be useful in other trials." This is a view shared by the chief UN prosecutor. Milosevic's trial, which had entered its fifth year at the time of his sudden death, documented chilling details of atrocities in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in thousands of pages of official records and hundreds of eyewitness accounts. "This represents a wealth of evidence that is on the record," del Ponte said at a press conference at the Hague the day after Milosevic died. "It is not only a question of convictions and sentencing. It is also a question of facts and truth." It is hoped that the testimonies given at his trial will help bring to justice Milosevic's henchmen. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his wartime General Ratko Mladic are the most important fugitives on the wanted list of the Hague tribunal. The two men have been indicted by the tribunal and each faces 16 counts of genocide and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, including the Srebrenica massacre. Numerous raids by NATO failed to capture them. Del Ponte has accused the Serb military of sheltering Mladic, former commander of the Bosnian Serb army. She said it was all the more urgent now that Serbia arrest Karadzic and Mladic and extradite them to the Hague tribunal. Milosevic's death came just six days after one of his former allies, former Croat Serb leader Milan Babic, committed suicide in the same prison. Babic pleaded guilty to charges of crimes against humanity perpetrated in Croatia between 1991 and 1995 and was a key prosecution witness at the Hague. The death of two prominent Serbs in quick succession at the Hague may complicate matters, making the Serbs more reluctant to cooperate in apprehending and surrendering the war criminals suspects still at large. Former American president Bill Clinton, whose administration confronted Milosevic's regime during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, said it was unfortunate that the trial of the ex- Yugoslav president -- the most important war crimes trial since Nuremberg after the Second World War -- ended abruptly without a verdict. But he added that prosecuting Milosevic, the first serving head of state to be extradited by his country to stand trial for war crimes, was of vital importance. "I am sorry that his trial will not be completed and that he did not acknowledge and apologise for his crimes before his death," Clinton said in a statement. "Nevertheless, his capture and trial will serve as a reminder that egregious crimes against humanity will not be tolerated."
