Party faithful meet Milosevic’s body

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro – The body of Slobodan Milosevic returned home Wednesday to a low-key welcome, with baggage handlers unceremoniously removing the former president’s casket from a jetliner’s cargo hold after a slew of suitcases.

But some who stood in the cold and snow flurries greeted his coffin with tears, kisses and wailing, reflecting the divisive emotions that Milosevic can still muster, even in death.

Milosevic died last weekend at a U.N. detention center in the Netherlands near the war crimes tribunal that was trying him on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He will be buried Saturday in the grounds of the family estate in the industrial town of Pozarevac, about 30 miles southeast of Belgrade, an official of Milosevic’s Socialist Party said.

After days of wrangling over his final resting place, Milosevic’s body arrived from Amsterdam aboard a commercial JAT Airways jetliner in a black coffin wrapped with plastic sheeting and packing tape. The casket emerged on a conveyer belt last from the plane, behind passengers’ bags and a baby stroller.

Members of Milosevic’s Socialist Party stood at the airport, holding a large wreath decorated with red roses, the party symbol. A red ribbon on the wreath read: “Slobo the Hero,” and party faithful draped a red, blue and white Serbian flag over the casket, some bending over to kiss it, others wiping away tears.

Serbia’s government has refused to hold a state ceremony, leaving it to Milosevic’s family and his Socialist allies to organize the return, funeral and burial.

Several people tossed flowers at the roof of the hearse carrying the coffin away as a few elderly women wailed loudly.