Supporters Pay Respects To Milosevic

(CBS/AP)  Slobodan Milosevic's flag-draped coffin went on public display Thursday for hundreds of tearful supporters paying their last respects to the late Serbian leader who died while being tried for war crimes.

A large framed color photograph of Milosevic was placed in front of the casket inside Belgrade's Museum of Revolution, a gallery once devoted to former Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito.

Milosevic died March 11 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.

Meanwhile, the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Thursday ordered the release of confidential trial records about the late Yugoslav president to investigators probing his death in detention.

Milosevic will be buried Saturday in the grounds of the family estate in the industrial town of Pozarevac, about 30 miles southeast of Belgrade.

Reflecting the controversy about Milosevic's legacy, Serbia's government has refused to hold a state ceremony, leaving it to his family and his Socialist allies to organize the funeral.

The Hague tribunal said the documents had been kept sealed to protect Milosevic's privacy, but the judges decided to make them available to Dutch authorities and to an internal inquiry by the tribunal for the sake of "unimpeded access" to information about his health.

Milosevic, who was 64, died Saturday while on trial for war crimes, including genocide, during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The trial, lasting more than four years, was repeatedly interrupted because of his poor health.

Milosevic's followers, most of whom were elderly, stood in silence along the cobblestone path leading to the museum entrance. Some sobbed quietly; many clutched red roses — the symbol of Milosevic's Socialist Party.

Milivoje Zivkovic, 81, limped his way up to the museum with a cane to pay tribute to "the man who loved his country more than any other Serb."

"It is insane that such a Serb hero, the best of all, is gone," said Mirko Lekic, 62, a chef who said he "cried like a baby" when Milosevic's death was announced.

Milorad Vucelic, the Socialist Party deputy president who organized Thursday's viewing, said he expected Milosevic's widow, Mirjana Markovic, to arrive Friday from Moscow. Markovic, who lives in Russia in self-imposed exile, has indicated she would not come until all charges against her for alleged abuse of power during Milosevic's reign were dropped.

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