Milosevic family clashes over burial site

Slobodan Milosevic’s family clashed today over where the former Yugoslav president should be buried, with proposals ranging from Serbia or Montenegro to Russia.

A funeral in Serbia would become a major rallying point for his supporters.

But Milosevic’s wife, Mirjana Markovic, and their son Marko – who have fled to Russia and are wanted on international arrest warrants – would have to be arrested if they returned to Serbia to attend the funeral.

Both want Milosevic to be buried in Moscow where they live, Serbia’s Beta news agency reported. Markovic and her son face charges in Serbia for alleged abuse of power while the former president was in office.

Milosevic’s brother, Borislav, who also lives in the Russian capital, suggested to Beta that he be buried “in his own country as he’s a son of Serbia.”

Milosevic’s daughter, Marija, said the former president should be buried in Montenegro in their family grave in the remote village of Lijeva Rijeka, some 30 miles north of Montenegro’s capital Podgorica.

“He’s not a Russian to be buried in Moscow,” Marija told Beta, adding that she would not attend the funeral if it was held in Russia.

Milosevic, 64, was found dead on Saturday in his bed at the UN war crimes tribunal’s detention centre in The Hague, Netherlands. He apparently died of natural causes, the tribunal said. An autopsy to determine the cause of his death will be conducted in the Dutch capital today before his body is delivered to his family.

Milosevic’s Socialist party, counting on a huge turnout, said it wants Milosevic to be buried at Belgrade’s “Alley of Heroes” – the graveyard reserved for prominent Serbs. The alternative, they said, would be his birthplace of Pozarevac, some 30 miles south of Belgrade.

Ivica Dacic, the president of the Socialists, said the funeral “should be a huge political manifestation in support of his policies.”

Another Socialist party official, Zoran Andjelkovic, said ”Milosevic must be buried with full state honours and guarantees for his family members to attend the funeral freely.”

Marija, the daughter, in 2001 moved to Montenegro, Serbia’s junior partner in the Serbia-Montenegro union. She also faces charges in Serbia – for firing a gun at a government official during Milosevic’s 2001 arrest in Belgrade.

The Serbian Radical Party, Milosevic’s wartime allies during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, called on its ultranationalist supporters to attend Milosevic’s funeral “and thus show that the (Hague) villains have not killed Serbia.”