The Associated Press reports:
Former Yugoslav leader
Slobodan Milosevic, the so-called “butcher of the Balkans” being tried for war crimes after orchestrating a decade of bloodshed during his country’s breakup, was found dead Saturday in his prison cell. He was 64.Milosevic, who suffered chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure, apparently died of natural causes and was found in his bed, the U.N. tribunal said, without giving an exact time of death…
…Milosevic’s death will be a crushing blow to the tribunal and those looking to establish an authoritative historical record of the Balkan wars.
Lennon was right, not so “instant karma” is gonna get you.
I should have added this for tin-foiliness:
that both had information that could be embarrassing to US and its allies.
another modern and secure man that knows how to capitalize my name correctly…
That Milosevic’s lawyers asked for him to be llowed to move to a hospital not long ago, but were refused will also be embarrassing. A full independent autopsy is required.
I just saw this story and was about to blog about it. I’ve never been a “coincidence theorist” and I suspect the deaths are related. Will we find the truth? Not if we don’t ask for it, and unfortunately, I have matters closer to home I have to fight for first. Thanks for noting the weirdness of the two deaths in six days….
I liked that quote. Thanks for sharing it 🙂
But on Ol’ Melo dying I’m a bit turned… are they (the Tribunal) upset that they didn’t kill him themselves (..they probably don’t have the death pentalty anyway..) and it’s been decades since his war crimes so what haven’t they done in all these years to prevent them from getting all they want from him, for purposes of establishing authoratative records or otherwise?
I will admit upfront any and all ignorance due to me in asking this question but my curiousity compells…
well actually his war crimes only ended in 2000. And he has not exactly been a cooperative defendant. He was currently trying to compel Bill Clinton’s testimony, for example.
oooh thanks for correcting me. I was thinking he had been captured much earlier than that
I meant to say years (more than a decade).. not decades
I take the point about historians wanting “an authoritative historical record” of what happened/is still evolving in the Balkans. Such a record would be an exemplary monument in terms of documenting actual events, and also documenting how well/badly Western nations dealt with it, or mostly, didn’t — until the bullets started flying and it was far too late for peaceful, rational behavior and the sparing of innocents.
I’m not understanding why historians think the “Butcher of the Balkans” was going to tell anyone anything close to the truth, however, either on the stand under oath at The Hague or anywhere else.
I also have to admit: I’m glad he can’t ever harm anyone, ever again.
Perhaps the next to die in his cell will be Sadaam Hussein.
A man who in my opinion has more humanity than George Bush ( that’s may not be saying much, I know) . A man who not only did not have WMD, Nuclear Weapons, etc but a man who by all accounts did not gas his own people, did not bury 500,000 people in Mass graves and a man who has been throughouly misrepresented as a complete madman. He may have been a little mad but not completely.
George Bush has wrought more destruction on Earth than Milosevic and Sadaam could have ever dreamed of.
Put Bush on Trial.