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BRUSSELS — Serbia’s ambassador to NATO was chatting and joking with colleagues in a parking garage at Brussels Airport when he suddenly strolled to a barrier, climbed over and flung himself to the ground below, a diplomat said.

By the time his shocked colleagues reached him, Branislav Milinkovic was dead.

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His motives are a mystery. Three diplomats who knew Milinkovic said he did not appear distraught in the hours leading up to his death Tuesday night. He seemed to be going about his regular business, picking up an arriving delegation of six Serbian officials who were due to hold talks with NATO, the alliance that went to war with his country just 13 years ago.

A former author and activist opposed to the authoritarian regime of Serbia’s former strongman Slobodan Milosevic, he was a respected diplomat and leading intellectual, officials said.

NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was deeply saddened by the tragic death of the Serbian ambassador

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details, said they knew of no circumstances — private or professional — that would have prompted him to take his own life.