Milosevic last words to wife: sleep well, I'll call

BELGRADE, Mar 13 (Reuters) ''Sleep well my darling. When I wake up in the morning I will call you,'' Slobodan Milosevic told his wife last Friday evening.

They were his last words to the childhood sweetheart to whom he was devoted all his life.

''We usually speak in the evening at around 8.30 pm, before he is locked up in his cell,'' Milosevic's widow Mirjana Markovic told the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti.

''He called me as usual around eight,'' she told the paper and recounted his parting goodnight. ''That was it,'' she said.

On Saturday morning, the Serb former strongman was found dead in his detention cell at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, from causes yet to be fully determined.

The 64-year-old ex-president had been on trial since 2001 for his role in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, with a verdict expected later this year.

The bonds between 'Mira and Sloba' were legendary in the top echelons of crumbling Yugoslavia. He doted on her. They addressed each other in baby-talk endearments in front of his political minions.

Mira visited Slobodan in detention regularly after he was extradited to The Hague in 2001 but fled herself for Russia in 2003 during a wave of arrests that followed the assassination of reformist prime minister Zoran Djindjic.

She last saw her husband nearly three years ago and faces arrest on charges of abuse of office if she returns to Serbia for his funeral. Milosevic's body is due to be released to his family on Monday following an autopsy.

''I have still not decided where my husband will be buried. If I were the one to decide, it would be Pozarevac,'' Markovic told the newspaper, referring to the family's industrial hometown 80 km from Belgrade.

''Unfortunately, I am still a hostage of the Interpol warrant ... how can I go to The Hague to pick up his body when I am still on Interpol's list?'' A preliminary autopsy report yesterday showed Milosevic died of a heart attack, but toxicology tests to establish its cause were continuing.

A Dutch medical expert said today that blood tests had shown Milosevic took drugs to worsen his health and bolster his case for treatment in Russia, rejected by the tribunal.

In her interview with Novosti last night, Markovic said her husband ''was killed by the Hague Tribunal''.

''Slobodan was working too much ... almost every day without any rest, with bad food, not enough fresh air ... He was already sick for a long time and getting worse,'' she said.

''He warned them he is feeling bad, but they did not make it possible for him to get treatment.'' REUTERS SB ND1812