Milosevic’s body begins final journey to Belgrade

A HEARSE took the body of Slobodan Milosevic to Amsterdam airport last night as Serbia cleared the way for the former Yugoslav president’s widow to return for a funeral in Belgrade.

Mr Milosevic, who died of a heart attack in jail on Saturday, just months before a verdict in his war crimes trial, ruled for a decade as Yugoslavia imploded in conflict during the 1990s. Belgrade authorities have ruled out a state funeral.

A Serbian court said Mr Milosevic’s widow, Mira Markovic, who fled to Moscow in 2003 to avoid charges of abuse of power, would not be arrested if she returned home. But she will face a court hearing and her passport will be confiscated, the court said.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the decision meant the funeral could take place in Serbia. Mr Milosevic’s son Marko had said he might consider a burial in Moscow unless he could be sure his mother would be safe in Belgrade.

“He should be buried in the place where he belongs, in the capital of our country, there is no discussion about that,” Mr Milosevic said.

“But unfortunately there are so many obstacles. The priority right now is the safety and life of my mother.”

Marko and a group of Russian doctors visited the forensic institute where Dutch pathologists conducted the autopsy on Sunday. A hearse took the body from the institute to Amsterdam airport. It was not clear when and where it would be flown out.

The director of the airport mortuary said the body would stay there overnight.

Mr Milosevic’s family has accused the UN tribunal of murdering the former Serb strongman by refusing his request to travel to Russia for medical treatment.

On his flight to Amsterdam, Marko Milosevic said: “He got killed, he didn’t die. He got killed. There is a murder.”

Moscow has expressed distrust of the Dutch investigation into Mr Milosevic’s death and sent the Russian doctors to examine the post-mortem results.

Yesterday, the UN court that has been trying Mr Milosevic for more than four years formally closed his trial for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

“We express our regret at his passing. We also regret that his untimely death has deprived not only him, but indeed all interested parties of a judgment upon the allegations in the indictment,” Presiding Judge Patrick Robinson told the court.

In Belgrade, more than 30 detained war crimes suspects from former Yugoslavia published a tribute in newspapers to the man who presided over wars that tore the country apart. They bade “a last farewell to our fellow fighter in The Hague”.