YUGOSLAVIA: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC'S WIFE MIRA MARKOVIC HAS FLOWN OUT OF BELGRADE TO VISIT THE FORMER YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT IN THE DUTCH JAIL

Record ID: 646583

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC'S WIFE MIRA MARKOVIC HAS FLOWN OUT OF BELGRADE TO VISIT THE FORMER YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT IN THE DUTCH JAIL
  • Date: 19th July 2001
  • Summary: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (JULY 19, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SV/SLV MIRA MARKOVIC, WIFE OR FORMER YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, ARRIVING AT AIRPORT (4 SHOTS) 1.06 2. SLV AIRPORT TERMINAL 1.10 3. SV MIRA MARKOVIC SEATED, WAITING 1.20 4. SLV/CU OF AIRPORT TERMINAL/FLIGHT BOARD (2 SHOTS) 1.33 5. SV MILOSEVIC'S WIFE AT PASSPORT CONTROL (2 SHOTS) 1.57 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 3rd August 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA30V5M6F4H2BVA8B3VJRQM3GC4
  • Story Text: Slobodan Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic has flown out
    of Belgrade to visit the former Yugoslav president in the
    Dutch jail where he is awaiting trial on war crimes charges.



    Markovic, herself a prominent politician widely
    regarded as a key influence on her husband, left aboard a
    Yugoslav Airlines flight for Amsterdam shortly after 0500 GMT.

    From there, she was expected to travel to the jail in The
    Hague holding her husband.

    The jet-black-haired 59-year-old made no comment before
    entering the departures lounge at Belgrade airport. She is
    expected to stay in the Netherlands until Saturday.

    She was accompanied by her daughter-in-law Milica and by a
    lawyer, Dragoslav Ognjanovic, who said he had been retained as
    part of a legal team to help defend Milosevic in The Hague.

    It was not clear if Ognjanovic's appointment meant
    Milosevic had gone back on his decision not to appoint defence
    counsel or if the lawyers would only act as advisers to the
    ex-president.

    Milosevic was handed over to the custody of the U.N. War
    Crimes Tribunal in The Hague on June 28.

    Prosecutors have charged him with crimes against humanity,
    accusing him of responsibility for the mass killings and
    expulsions of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

    Milosevic has refused to recognise the authority of the
    tribunal, which has entered a plea of not guilty on his
    behalf.

    Milosevic and his wife have been together since they were
    teenagers and are widely seen as a very close couple.

    Markovic has been dubbed Serbia's "Lady MacBeth" for her
    influence on her husband and the "Red Witch" for her public
    support of leftist ideology and reported belief in mysticism.

    Dutch authorities announced on Friday they would grant
    Markovic a visa to visit her husband although she was on an EU
    blacklist composed of Milosevic's family and close associates.

    The blacklist was drawn up as part of international
    sanctions designed to hurt Milosevic and his entourage, seen
    in the West as among those most responsible for a decade of
    Balkan wars, and stop them moving money around.

    But the war crimes tribunal asked the Netherlands to allow
    Markovic to visit Milosevic.

    The tribunal stresses its detention unit is a remand
    centre, not a prison. Many of the 39 inmates are still
    awaiting their trials and must accordingly be treated as
    innocent people.

    The tribunal declines to give details of detainees'
    private matters, but couples can typically expect to be
    provided with rooms for conjugal visits, dubbed "intimacy
    rooms".

    Makovic said in a recent magazine interview she felt lost
    without her husband and still found him "cute and likeable".

    She is expected to visit him each day until her departure.


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