Serbian ambassador to Nato dies after parking garage plummet at Brussels airport
Serbia’s ambassador to Nato, Branislav Milinković, died in an incident at Brussels airport in what several media reports have alleged was a suicide.
Milinković (52) was reported to have jumped from a parking garage in front of Serbian deputy foreign minister Zoran Vujic.
Milinković was in Brussels for the December 4 and 5 meeting of Nato foreign ministers. While Serbia is a not a Nato member, it acceded to the alliance’s Partnership for Peace programme in 2006.
In Belgrade, the foreign ministry said that Milinković had died tragically. It described Milinković, who had served at the country’s mission to Nato for several years and was confirmed as ambassador in 2009, as a respected diplomat and lawyer, remembered by his colleagues as a “skilled diplomat, versatile scholar and a noble man”.
Serbian prime minister Ivica Dacic said that Belgian police were investigating, but apparently Milinković’s death was a suicide. Dacic expressed his condolences to Milinković’s family and friends.
Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also expressed condolences, saying that he was deeply moved at Milinković’s death.
Milinković is survived by a wife and son.
(Photo: Milinković, left, at the December 2006 meeting at which Serbia became a member of Nato’s Partnership for Peace programme: Nato.int)
