Milosevic Toxicology report expected as family due in Serbia
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-03-17 14:56

Milosevic "deserved more than this," said a woman in her 50s, who only identified herself as a former bank clerk, expressing a strain of disappointment about the low-key, but solemn send-off.

Milosevic is due to be buried on Saturday in his birthplace of Pozarevac, a town 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Belgrade.

On Thursday, up to 1,000 people converged at the Belgrade museum before the coffin containing Milosevic's body was carried into the red-carpeted but bare room that was once used to honour the dictator Josip Broz Tito.

Transported in a grey van, his casket arrived at the museum, situated in the elite suburb of Dedinje a few blocks from Milosevic's former villa, where he was arrested before being handed over to the UN war crimes court in 2001.

People filed past the coffin which was draped in a Serbian flag with bouquets of roses on either side, most crossing themselves, bowing or simply touching the coffin. Some wiped tears away.

At the end of the first day of tributes, at least 3,500 supporters of Milosevic were estimated to have paid homage to the late Yugoslav president.

There were signs in the Serbian capital though of growing discontent about the commemoration, with more than 20 cultural institutions issuing a joint statement to show their support for the director of the museum who had criticised the use of the building for a political stunt.

"I strongly protest as a director, person and citizen of this country, and call on the public and the Serbian government to react against a violation of cultural autonomy and the political use of a cultural institution," said the director, Ljiljana Cetinic, adding the decision was not hers.

Separately, many people in Belgrade reportedly received a mobile text message urging them to stage a mass anti-Milosevic rally in the city's main square at the same time as his funeral in his home town of Pozarevac at the weekend.

After being put on display here on Friday, the body of the man who was revered by some as a great Serb, but despised by others as a bloodthirsty ruler, will begin its final journey a day later to the town.

Local authorities there gave the go-ahead for a 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) Saturday burial in the grounds of the family's walled compound, where workmen were seen digging on Thursday.

A tombstone-maker had already built a gold-engraved memorial for Milosevic, and an unmarked one for his widow, as is the tradition in Serbia, state-run RTS television reported early on Friday.

A Belgrade court earlier this week revoked an arrest warrant for Markovic, who is widely believed to have been living in Russia where Marko fled in 2000 after his father was ousted.

Daughter Marija, who lives in Montenegro, the state federated with Serbia, will make a final decision on Friday evening, a source close to her told AFP.

Borislav, the elder brother of the former president who is also based in Russia, underwent a heart operation on Wednesday and will be unable to go to the funeral, doctors said.

Besides his family, it is still unclear who will attend the burial, with the only confirmations being members of his SPS party and a delegation of Russian lawmakers.