Russian physicians’ role in Milosevic forensic examination over

Russian physicians’ role in Milosevic forensic examination over
Itar-Tass - 17.03.2006, 19.25

MOSCOW, March 17 (Itar-Tass) - Russian physicians participation in a forensic study pertaining to the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is over, the director of Moscow-based Bakulev Center for Cardiovascular Surgery, Dr. Leo Bokeria told reporters Friday.

Bokeria chaired a group of Russian physicians who took part in a special expert examination of Milosevic’s death in The Hague.

“We made an arrangement with our Dutch fellow-doctors they’ll send us the copies of all forensic testing [done in connection with the Milosevic case], but this requires permission from the Dutch government,” Dr. Bokeria said.

“Our ambassador to the Netherlands told us it’s a prerogative of state agencies, and our diplomats will handle the issue now,” he said.

Dr. Bokeria said, however, he did not see any urgency in getting the data in question since there were no doubts as to “why the man died.”

“He had an infarction, the narrowing of the main blood vessel that brought about the infarction,” he said.
Dr. Bokeria admitted, however, that even this plain confirmation of the fact is tantamount to a slap in the face of the tribunal for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

“We pressed them to three years to allow the man to get genuine hospital treatment so that the doctors could issue a diagnosis for him, but nothing of the kind was ever done,” he said