The Balkan people were last night urged to "draw a line" under their violent past following the death of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Milosevic, who was found dead in his cell at The Hague in the Netherlands yesterday morning, had been a "malign influence" on the troubled region.
The 64-year-old — nicknamed 'The Butcher of the Balkans' — had been on trial for war crimes since February 2002, but the proceedings were repeatedly delayed so he could get treatment for high blood pressure and heart problems.
A spokesman for the specially convened UN tribunal at The Hague said he was thought to have died from "natural causes", although a full investigation would be carried out.
Speaking at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Austria, Mr Straw told the BBC: "What is important is that the people of the region and of Serbia now draw a line across Milosevic's past and his life."
Milosevic's family said prosecutors and judges were to blame for his death because they had refused to allow him to visit Russia for specialist treatment.
His older brother, Borislav Milosevic, told reporters in Moscow: "All responsibility for this lies on the shoulders of the international tribunal. He asked for treatment several months ago, they knew this.
"They drove him to this as they didn't want to let him out alive."
Borislav added that the family had little faith that the UN would conduct the autopsy impartially.
Milosevic had been defending himself against 66 counts, including genocide, in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. One of the most serious charges against him concerned the massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.
Other allegations stemmed from the invasion of Kosovo which prompted Nato-led bombing of Serbia in 1999.
The long-running hearings at the Hague were entering their final phase, with the former president expected to finish his defence by the summer.
The tribunal was due to resume again on Tuesday to hear evidence from the next defence witness.
(PA)