05 December, 13:31
(ANSAmed) – BELGRADE, DECEMBER 5 – Serbia’s ambassador to NATO, Branislav Milinkovic, 52, committed suicide last night at the Zaventem airport in Brussels, Serbia’s diplomatic delegation confirmed to ANSA. The sources did not indicate the circumstances of the ambassador’s ‘tragic death’.
According to the Serbian dailies Blic and Kurir, Milinkovic took his life by jumping from a multi-storey car park in front of Zoran Vujic, an aide of Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic, who is in charge of security and intelligence.
A respected diplomat who had served in Vienna and Brussels, Milinkovic leaves a wife and a six-year-old son. His wife learnt about the ambassador’s death while in Dublin and immediately returned to Brussels.
No apparent motive for the suicide has been indicated.
Milinovic was appointed ambassador to NATO on August 3, 2009.
He was previously an ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for Serbia and Montenegro and was subsequently appointed special envoy to NATO.
Prosecutors in Brussels have confirmed that the diplomat committed suicide. ‘There are elements that clearly indicate it was a suicide and therefore the investigation can be considered closed’, said a spokesperson.
The news of Milinkovic’s death came on the second day of a foreign ministers’ meeting at the headquarters of NATO. ‘The secretary general is deeply saddened by the news of the death of ambassador Milinkovic. The ambassador was highly respected in his country and will be missed at NATO’, said the alliance’s secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen. (ANSAmed).