PRAGUE, March 13, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Sergei Lavrov did not mince his words today. Russia, he said, was sending its own medical team to The Hague to examine the results of the autopsy on Slobodan Milosevic. It was, he said, a question of trust.
"In the situation when we were not trusted, we also have the right not to believe and not to trust those who are conducting the autopsy," Lavrov said. "We have appealed to the tribunal with a request for our doctors to take part in the autopsy or at least acquaint themselves with its results."
The irritation reflected in those words stems from the refusal last month of the UN war crimes tribunal to grant Milosevic permission to travel to Moscow for medical treatment: "The Russian Federation provided the tribunal with 100 percent state guarantees that after the completion of the treatment Milosevic would return to The Hague. Those guarantees were examined during a special session of the tribunal, which found them insufficient. Essentially they did not believe Russia. This can only disturb us. It can only worry us that Milosevic passed away shortly afterwards."
Slav Unity
As fellow Slavs and Orthodox Christians, many Russians closely identified with the Serbian cause in the 1990s and strongly opposed the 1999 NATO bombardment of Serbia that hastened Milosevic's fall from power.
The results of the autopsy have revealed that Milosevic died of a heart attack, but doctors are also performing a toxicology report to see if Milosevic may have been poisoned. A Dutch toxicologist said today that he found traces of a drug in Milosevic's blood two weeks ago that could have counteracted the effects of the hypertension medication he was taking.
Dutch authorities said today that Milosevic's remains could be released to his family.
A Milosevic legal adviser today said Milosevic's son, Marko, is seeking permission to travel to The Hague to pick up the body and that the family wanted the funeral to be held in Belgrade.