Thousands gather to say goodbye to former leader

The Serbian government refused to grant him a state funeral.
WASHINGTON POST
POZAREVAC, Serbia-Montenegro -- Tens of thousands of Serbs gave former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic a hero's farewell and pronounced him a victim of the U.N. war crimes tribunal, in whose custody he died a week ago.
About 15,000 supporters gathered at his burial site in Pozarevac, his hometown, and about 50,000 at a commemoration in Belgrade, the capital. The mourners praised Milosevic, who oversaw Serbia's role in the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II, as a defender of the nation and man of peace and love.
The crowds in Pozarevac chanted "Slobo, hero" and "Serbia, Serbia" as they threw flowers at a silver Mercedes-Benz hearse carrying his body to the grave site. A photo of Milosevic dominated the main square.
Milosevic was buried in the yard of a family residence in Pozarevac, a depressed industrial city 50 miles southeast of Belgrade. The Serbian government had denied him a state funeral, and only in Pozarevac, where the Socialists control city hall, did the Serbian flag fly at half-staff.
Controversy
Milosevic died in his cell of a heart attack, according to a forensic examination. For many of his supporters, Milosevic's use of drugs that counteracted medication for high blood pressure remains a mystery, and his die-hard followers have accused the tribunal of murder.
"They couldn't stand Milosevic's defense of himself," said Bozidar Delic, head of a Serbian group that campaigned to free Milosevic from The Hague, where he was being tried on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Before arriving in Pozarevac, his casket lay under a canopy in front of the parliament building, a Belgrade site heavy with meaning. In October 2000, mobs stormed the building to protest Milosevic's effort to overturn a presidential election won by Vojislav Kostunica, Serbia's prime minister. After entering the building, protesters tossed hundreds of fraudulent ballots out windows and set rooms on fire. A few days later, Milosevic stepped down; soon after, Belgrade authorities sent him to The Hague.
On Saturday, Milosevic's political associates fashioned a legend of Milosevic as steadfast champion of Serbia and victim of the West.
"We are bidding farewell to the best one among us," said Milorad Vucelic, a Socialist party official.
"American aggression put under occupation," said Alexander Vucic, head of the Serbian Radical Party, which has inherited much of the nationalist support that once belonged to the Socialists. The leader of the Radical Party, Vojislav Sesel, who is on trial at the Hague for war crimes, also sent a message: "Our Serbia will rise like a phoenix from the ashes."