It goes without saying that he will be missed.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, the so-called “butcher of the Balkans” being tried for war crimes after orchestrating a decade of bloodshed during his country’s breakup, was found dead Saturday in his prison cell. He was 64.

Milosevic, who suffered chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure, apparently died of natural causes and was found in his bed, the U.N. tribunal said, without giving an exact time of death.

He had been examined following frequent complaints of fatigue or ill health that delayed his trial, but the tribunal could not immediately say when his last medical checkup was. All detainees at the center in Scheveningen are checked by a guard every half hour.

The tribunal said Milosevic’s family had been informed of his death, which came nearly five years after he was arrested, then extradited to The Hague.

Ed Morrissey adds some excellent perspective.

In the end, he beat the Hague and the UN in the limited arena left to him. He stalled the trial long enough to die before its completion and made the Hague look like incompetents and fools. Like all sociopaths, he wanted to control as much as possible right to the very end — and unfortunately, he succeeded.

(via Wizbang!)