| Milosevic's hometown to host backyard
burial Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:38 AM ET
By Andrew Gray and Beti Bilandzic POZAREVAC, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Behind green metal gates bearing his portrait and a couple of dozen flowers, Slobodan Milosevic will be laid to rest on Saturday in the grounds of his family home. The burial in a modest cul-de-sac in the drab provincial town of Pozarevac is a far cry from the state funeral in Belgrade the former Serbian leader's admirers had demanded. Some of them admit his remains may be safer under the old lime tree in the family compound, given the feelings aroused by a man who led his nation in a decade of Balkan wars that killed at least 150,000 and forced millions from their homes. "He should be buried in the Avenue of Heroes but maybe it's for the best that it's here, where people can't vandalize his grave -- to keep it away from hooligans who would wreck it," said pensioner Radisa Stakic, standing outside the gate. Indicted for war crimes and reviled in neighboring states and the West, Milosevic retains a strong following in his home town some 80 km (50 miles) southeast of Belgrade, even though he was driven from power by his own people six years ago. "I'm sorry that he's gone. No nobler man will ever be born in Serbia," declared Slavica Milosevic, a young housewife who said she was not related to her namesake but wished she was. "I supported Milosevic, I thought he was right," said Dubravka Veljic, pushing her five-month-old son Luka in a blue buggy through the town center. "A HERO" Asked how she would describe Milosevic to her son when he was older, she replied: "As a historic figure and a hero." Although denied the state honors they believe he deserved, Milosevic's Socialists are promising to turn the ceremony in Pozarevac into a major international event. They say the town's population of 50,000 will be doubled by mourners from around Serbia and beyond when the coffin is brought here on Saturday afternoon after being put on display in the center of Belgrade in the morning. "All those who respect the president will come. Pozarevac will not be able to receive them all," senior Socialist official Milorad Vucelic told Reuters Television. A big influx of mourners would put a huge strain on the town, known in Serbia for little except being the home of a major prison, a biscuit factory and Milosevic. The cul-de-sac leading to 41 Nemanjina Street, the family compound, will struggle to hold more than a few hundred people. But not everyone will be giving the town's best-known son a hero's welcome. In a case which received wide publicity, local man Radojko Lukovic says he and other pro-democracy activists were beaten up by Milosevic's son Marko and his friends months before the president was forced out of office by a mass uprising. "History will show whether he was a great man or not. I think the worst of him," said Lukovic, standing in the doorway of a bakery in the town center on Friday. "He has disfigured Serbia and turned it back a hundred years," he said. | |
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© Reuters 2006. |
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