Forensic toxicologist involved in examining Mr. Milosevic steps far beyond his role
A letter to Professor Donald Uges,
Dr. Professor Donald Uges,
Professor of Analytical Biochemistry,
University of Groningen
A Deuslinglaan 1
9713AV
Groningen
The Netherlands / Nederlands
14th March 2006
Dear Professor Uges,
I feel compelled to write to you regarding comments which have been attributed to you in the international media, including the media of my country the Republic of Ireland, regarding your toxicology analysis on the body of Mr. Slobodan Milosevic.
My apologies firstly for not writing in Dutch as I do not speak that language, and also in case you may have been misquoted by the media.
The media reports I refer to claim that you stated that Mr. Milosevic may have been deliberately taking a drug designed to treat Tuberculosis and Leprosy in an attempt to counteract the drugs prescribed to him to treat his high blood pressure and heart condition.
If these remarks have been accurately reported, then it is surely a case that you have stepped far beyond your role as a forensic toxicologist. As far as I understand you only examined, and were only asked to examine a blood sample from President Milosevic. Your role therefore was to find out what toxins, natural or otherwise, were in his blood. How you could possibly ascertain how such toxins came to be present in Mr. Milosevic's blood sample is clearly a different matter. Have you suddenly become a detective instead of a toxicologist?
If you only examined Mr. Milosevic's blood sample then how can you possibly state, with apparent certainty, that Mr. Milosevic deliberately took an unprescribed medicine to make himself ill so that he would stengthen his case to be transferred to Moscow for medical treatment, and, presumably, abscond to that jurisdiction. It is beyond belief that you could make such a statement as a respected world renowned Professor of Analytical Biochemistry. How could you know whether he took it deliberately or was given it without his knowledge by mixing with prescribed drugs.
I must make it clear to you that your statement, whether it has been reported accurately or otherwise, has been given prominent media coverage around the world and is undoubtedly being used to give credence to the claims of Mr. Milosevic's enemies and discredit the claims of his lawyer and family, along with the Russian Foreign Ministry, that Mr. Milosevic was being posioned. Your comments have been used to paint him as a self-poisioner who would risk death to feign illness and escape 'justice'.
Perhaps you have been cruelly misquoted by the international media, if so you surely must clarify your position in order to retain an untarnished reputation as a renowned medical toxicologist rather than a biased medical professional using his position and straying into the political arena to add another lie to the mountain of lies against Mr. Milosevic.
Yours sincerely,
John Jefferies
Irish Section,
International Commitee for the Defence of Slobodan Milosevic
Co. Cork. Ireland.