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Tadic Rails Against Milosevic`s Treatment

The president of Serbia and Montenegro, Boris Tadic, is blaming the United Nations war crimes tribunal at The Hague for Slobodan Milosevic`s death, though he reiterated it would not hamper Serbia`s future cooperation with the court. Tadic said, "Undoubtedly, Milosevic had demanded a higher level of health care. That right should have been granted to all war crimes defendants."

Tadic, whose Democratic Party led a popular revolt that toppled Milosevic in 2000, says despite "the lack of credibility" the tribunal has among Serbs, Serbia plans to cooperate in handing over more war crimes suspects, including top fugitive Ratko Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb army commander wanted on genocide charges.

Mr. Milosevic died Saturday morning of a heart attack in his prison cell near the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The former Serbian president, who was on trial for genocide and war crimes in connection with the many wars resulting from the breakup of Yugoslavia, had recently demanded to be temporarily released to go to Moscow for treatment after years of suffering from heart problems and high blood pressure. The High Court had refused the request.