Ex-Serbian leader "confided poisoning claims on eve of death"
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - March 15, 2006, Wednesday

Text of report by Montenegrin Mina news agency

Sarajevo, 15 March: Slobodan Milosevic was convinced that he was being poisoned by the Hague tribunal, said today former Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic.

Bulatovic was scheduled to testify as a defence witness at Milosevic's trial and was in The Hague when he died.

Bulatovic told a news conference that Milosevic was "strongly and deeply" convinced that he was being poisoned by the tribunal, because he was not taking the contested medication rifampicin, which is used to treat leprosy.

"The crown proof that Milosevic was poisoned is the Hague tribunal's indifference - the tribunal did nothing - although the medication was found in his bloodstream on 12 January, while the results of tests were given to Milosevic only on 9 March," he said.

Bulatovic said that Milosevic told him that he was being poisoned at the tribunal and that he had informed his legal representative Zdenko Tomanovic about that.

"On 9 March, Milosevic spoke to the assistant of the imposed defence lawyer, Gillian Higgins [Milosevic always insisted on defending himself on his own], and asked her to refer to the court council his request that an independent medical commission establish whether he was being poisoned," Bulatovic said.

He also said that Milosevic on that occasion told Higgins that he was deeply humiliated by claims that he was taking the disputed medication on his own.

"Because of strict controls at the Hague tribunal, there was no chance that someone could have given Milosevic secretly the medication which would annul the effect of the prescribed medication," Bulatovic said.

Asked who could have been poisoning Milosevic, Bulatovic said "the same people who put him in prison were the people who were poisoning him".

"Milosevic would have been alive today if he was transferred to a hospital," he said.

Bulatovic said that Milosevic was convinced that his testimony would be crown proof in countering the indictment charges that the former Yugoslavia was destroyed "by a criminal organization at whose helm he was".

Source: Mina news agency, Podgorica, in Serbian 1705 gmt 15 Mar 06

Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
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