Once again, they make it sound as if the whole country is in mourning....
Posted on Sun, Mar. 19, 2006
Serbs glorify Milosevic at his hometown burial
FORMER PRESIDENT IS CALLED A HERO AND MAN OF PEACE
By Daniel Williams
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 attended 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...
Milosevic died in his cell of a heart attack, according to a forensic examination. Milosevic's 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.
Saturday, Milosevic's political associates fashioned a legend of him 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 on war-crimes charges, also sent a message: ``Our Serbia will rise like a phoenix from the ashes.''
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, fresh from participation on Saddam Hussein's defense team in the war-crimes trial in Baghdad, praised Milosevic, saying ``He was a man for the ages.''
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