flight from the Netherlands for a private burial in his home town of Pozarevac.
There were no honor guards, no speeches. All that Serbs saw on television was a small group of Milosevic’s Socialist Party supporters waiting in the bitter cold at Belgrade airport. The functionaries draped his coffin in a Serbian flag as soon as it emerged from the cargo compartment of the airliner and carried it to a waiting van.
The Serbian government had made it clear there would be no state funeral for Milosevic.
As Milosevic’s body was being honored by his followers in a private ceremony, questions continue to abound over the circumstances that led to his death in a prison cell near the U.N. tribunal in The Hague where he was tried for war crimes.
Russia’s top cardiologist, Leo Bokeria, who headed a team of Russian doctors who joined Dutch pathologists in the Netherlands, ruled out poisoning and agreed he had died of a heart attack.
MEDICAL TREATMENT
But he suggested that better medical treatment in the U.N. detention facility could have avoided Milosevic’s death. "It is my opinion that his death was preventable," said Bokeria. "Absolutely. Because he had a pathology which is treated in any place in the world at the moment."
Serbian President Boris Tadic agreed, saying Milosevic’s death has diminished the credibility of the UN tribunal. He recalled that Milosevic died shortly after Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic committed suicide in the same jail. "I have to say that we have a problem today with the credibility of The Hague Tribunal because of two very sensitive cases within three weeks," said Tadic.
"First of all the suicide of Mr. Babic and after that Milosevic’s death. [This is controversial] especially after his demand for extra medical care. This is a real problem for my country today and the government in Serbia." But he added that Belgrade will continue to cooperate with the UN court in bringing other war crimes suspects to international justice.
Tadic said honoring Milosevic in a state funeral would be "absolutely inappropriate considering the role he has played in Serbia’s recent history." Milosevic took Serbia through four wars during his 13 years in power.
The former leader, who was 64, will be laid to rest on Saturday in his home town of Pozarevac. It was still unclear whether his widow, Mira Markovic, who is in self-imposed exile in Moscow, would attend the funeral.
POWERFUL FIGURE
Once a powerful figure in Serbian politics, she is facing corruption charges at home, and while a Belgrade court temporarily lifted a warrant for her arrest, it also ordered she surrender her passport on arrival.
Chief editor of Serbia’s Politika newspaper, Ljiljana Smajlovic, said Milosevic’s death spared the Serbs international condemnation. "Everyone here feels I think that Mr. Milosevic’s dying unconvicted may to some extent help Serbia evade collective punishment at the World Court and may help in Serbia not being convicted of genocide," added Smajlovic.
Elsewhere in Europe, the death of Milosevic is seen as an opportunity for Serbia to bury its bloodstained past and build a more peaceful future. That is music in the ears of Serbian Orthodox Christians in the tense Serbian province of Kosovo, who say they have suffered revenge attacks from ethnic Albanian militants.
Churches and monasteries have been destroyed throughout the province, despite the presence of thousands of NATO-backed peacekeepers, rights groups say. While Serbs want to remain in Kosovo, ethnic Albanians seek independence.
THOUSANDS FLED
Less than a third of the province’s estimated pre-war Serbian population of 300-thousand remained in the province after 78 days of NATO bombings forced Milosevic’s troops to withdraw in 1999.
Kosovo’s new Prime Minister Agim Ceku, who Belgrade accuses of war crimes during the Balkan conflict in Kosovo, said Wednesday, March 15, that he would like to see a report on human rights activities in the region, news reports said.
Independent Belgrade based network B’92 quoted Ceku as saying that all the officials from Kosovo ministries who deal with the protection of human rights will have to file a report for him as soon as possible on the success of the implementation of human rights by the ministries.
“We must promote the values of tolerance, coexistence, reconciliation and forgiveness, so that everyone in Kosovo can feel equal and respected." Ceku promised. (Part of this BosNewsLife story also airs on Voice Of America (VOA) network).
