BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - Thousands of weeping supporters of Slobodan Milosevic passed by the coffin of their late leader Friday, but it appeared increasingly unlikely that his widow would attend his funeral, fearing arrest if she returned from self-imposed exile in Russia.
Members of Milosevic's Socialist Party kept a vigil overnight by his coffin, draped in a Serbian flag and covered with a wreath of red roses, the party's symbol. The party is organizing the funeral after authorities refused state ceremonies for the former Yugoslav president.
But the turnout was much lower than organizers' predictions of hundreds of thousands of mourners, and nowhere near the huge crowds Milosevic once commanded in his heyday, when his fiery speeches inspired his followers to take part in wars in neighbouring Bosnia and Croatia, and in Kosovo.
Milosevic died last weekend at a detention centre near the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which was trying him on 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide - the first head of state to be extradited by his country for trial by the UN court.
His remains, flown home on Wednesday, are to be buried Saturday at a family estate in his home town of Pozarevac, about 50 kilometres southeast of Belgrade. His coffin went on public display Thursday.
In Pozarevac on Friday, workers dug a double grave - for Milosevic and for his widow Mirjana Markovic, who has said she wants to be buried with him when she dies.
The Socialists on Friday reiterated expectations that Markovic and her son, Marko Milosevic, would arrive from Moscow for the burial.
Markovic has indicated she was reluctant to come unless all charges against her for alleged abuse of power during Milosevic's reign were dropped.
Markovic, the power behind the scenes during Milosevic's rule, has also been alleged to have ordered the murder of several of her husband's political opponents in the 1990s.
Russia's Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who arrived in Belgrade on Friday to attend the funeral, said Markovic would not attend the burial because she fears she could be arrested while in Serbia.
"It's enough that Marko lost his father," Zyuganov told reporters. "He doesn't need to lose his mother as well."
Questions and accusations have swirled this week about Milosevic's death. Markovic and her son say the former leader was poisoned; the tribunal says an autopsy revealed he died of a heart attack, and a Dutch toxicological report said he was not poisoned. Russia claims Milosevic was not properly treated.
Questions were raised about the cause of his fatal cardiac problem after it was reported he had been taking medicines that were not prescribed by the UN cardiologist.
"No evidence of poisoning has been found," tribunal president Judge Fausto Pocar said in The Hague, reading the preliminary results of a Dutch toxicological report. A number of prescribed medications were found in his body, "but not in toxic concentrations," he said.
The Socialists and ultra-nationalists, ousted from power along with Milosevic in 2000, are hoping to make political gains from their leader's death at the UN-run detention unit in The Hague.
Branko Rakic, Milosevic's legal adviser during the war crimes trial, called Pocar's statement "scandalous."
"Today, such a huge array of falsehoods has been presented, indicating that someone's conscience obviously isn't clear," Rakic said in Belgrade.
"Those who were in a position of monopoly over Milosevic's health denied him proper and adequate treatment," Rakic said. "If Milosevic had been in a hospital, he would have been alive today."
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/WorldNewsArticle.htm?src=w031713A.xml
Good. A man who tries to kill people because of their ethnic background in the name of socialism shouldn't receive a huge turnout. And that is all I will say.
Members of Milosevic's Socialist Party kept a vigil overnight by his coffin, draped in a Serbian flag and covered with a wreath of red roses, the party's symbol. The party is organizing the funeral after authorities refused state ceremonies for the former Yugoslav president.
But the turnout was much lower than organizers' predictions of hundreds of thousands of mourners, and nowhere near the huge crowds Milosevic once commanded in his heyday, when his fiery speeches inspired his followers to take part in wars in neighbouring Bosnia and Croatia, and in Kosovo.
Milosevic died last weekend at a detention centre near the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which was trying him on 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide - the first head of state to be extradited by his country for trial by the UN court.
His remains, flown home on Wednesday, are to be buried Saturday at a family estate in his home town of Pozarevac, about 50 kilometres southeast of Belgrade. His coffin went on public display Thursday.
In Pozarevac on Friday, workers dug a double grave - for Milosevic and for his widow Mirjana Markovic, who has said she wants to be buried with him when she dies.
The Socialists on Friday reiterated expectations that Markovic and her son, Marko Milosevic, would arrive from Moscow for the burial.
Markovic has indicated she was reluctant to come unless all charges against her for alleged abuse of power during Milosevic's reign were dropped.
Markovic, the power behind the scenes during Milosevic's rule, has also been alleged to have ordered the murder of several of her husband's political opponents in the 1990s.
Russia's Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who arrived in Belgrade on Friday to attend the funeral, said Markovic would not attend the burial because she fears she could be arrested while in Serbia.
"It's enough that Marko lost his father," Zyuganov told reporters. "He doesn't need to lose his mother as well."
Questions and accusations have swirled this week about Milosevic's death. Markovic and her son say the former leader was poisoned; the tribunal says an autopsy revealed he died of a heart attack, and a Dutch toxicological report said he was not poisoned. Russia claims Milosevic was not properly treated.
Questions were raised about the cause of his fatal cardiac problem after it was reported he had been taking medicines that were not prescribed by the UN cardiologist.
"No evidence of poisoning has been found," tribunal president Judge Fausto Pocar said in The Hague, reading the preliminary results of a Dutch toxicological report. A number of prescribed medications were found in his body, "but not in toxic concentrations," he said.
The Socialists and ultra-nationalists, ousted from power along with Milosevic in 2000, are hoping to make political gains from their leader's death at the UN-run detention unit in The Hague.
Branko Rakic, Milosevic's legal adviser during the war crimes trial, called Pocar's statement "scandalous."
"Today, such a huge array of falsehoods has been presented, indicating that someone's conscience obviously isn't clear," Rakic said in Belgrade.
"Those who were in a position of monopoly over Milosevic's health denied him proper and adequate treatment," Rakic said. "If Milosevic had been in a hospital, he would have been alive today."
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/WorldNewsArticle.htm?src=w031713A.xml
Good. A man who tries to kill people because of their ethnic background in the name of socialism shouldn't receive a huge turnout. And that is all I will say.