Nothing could disguise the frustration on Sunday of Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, at the sudden death of Slobodan Milosevic only weeks before his marathon trial was due to end.

The former Yugoslav president was charged on no fewer than 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed between 1991 and 1999. The case has been probably the most exhaustive and exhausting attempt ever made to pin responsibility for individual crimes on a former head of state.