'Milosevic might have committed suicide'

The chief UN war crimes prosecutor said on Sunday it was possible Slobodan Milosevic had committed suicide and his death made it all the more urgent to catch others blamed for the horrors of the Balkan wars.

The chief UN war crimes prosecutor said on Sunday it was possible Slobodan Milosevic had committed suicide and his death made it all the more urgent to catch others blamed for the horrors of the Balkan wars.

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UN prosecutor Carla del Ponte said the former Yugoslav president might have wanted to thwart the impending verdict in his marathon war crimes trial, which she said she expected to be one of guilty, followed by a life sentence.

She noted it was the second death in a week at the Hague tribunal's detention centre. Former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic took his own life last Sunday.

Dutch scientists began an autopsy on Sunday, with senior pathologists from Serbia observing. A tribunal spokeswoman said it was unlikely results would be ready on Sunday.

The 64-year-old, who suffered from a heart condition and high blood pressure, was found dead in his cell on Saturday, only months before a verdict was due in his trial on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the 1990s.