THOUSANDS GATHER TO MOURN THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC'S DEATH
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - March 11, 2007

One year ago today President Milosevic was found dead in the Hague Tribunal's jail, just three days after writing a letter to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs expressing fears that his captors were poisoning.

In spite of the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, the Milosevic family was not allowed to choose which doctors would would perform the autopsy. According to President Milosevic's son Marko, "The autopsy was conducted without the presence of the independent expert team sent by our family, even though we insisted on it. The Russian doctors were denied the access to the body and the tissue samples. Our family has even been denied his blood samples. Now it happens that the Dutch medical institutions and doctors, which have already been gravely compromised in the eyes of the public through their involvement with the ICTY Prosecution in numerous manipulations with my father’s health, medical treatment, and respective diagnosis, were the only ones to manage the toxicology tests and announce their results!"

Only two-weeks after the Tribunal denied his request to receive heart surgery, the Tribunal said that President Milosevic had died from a heart attack.

In President Milosevic's home town of Pozarevac thousands of mourners have been gathering since yesterday to mark the one year anniversary of President Milosevic's untimely death.

"Milosevic was an honorable man who worked for the benefit of Serbia and its people," said supporter Bogoljub Bjelica.

Milosevic's successor as head of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, laid a wreath on the marble tombstone, followed by a group of senior officials of the Serbian Radical Party.

“A year after the death of Slobodan Milosevic, it's clear that principles he fought for are correct,” Mr Dacic said, adding that "Those who have been criticizing him for years over Kosovo ... have now adopted his stance, they do not accept its independence."

"He's only been gone for a year and they are defending Kosovo with his ideas, " said Ljiljana Pavlovic.

Added Jovan Djordjevic, a Kosovo-Serb who fled the province after the NATO aggression: "If Milosevic were alive, Kosovo would be resolved honestly, honorably."

At the memorial, thousands of supporters queued for hours to leave flowers on the grave in the grounds of the Milosevic estate, some kissing the simple wooden cross bearing his name.

In the memorial book outside the Milosevic estate, one mourner called President Milosevic a "hero of the Serb people who will live forever in our hearts". Another mourner wrote, "You lived for Serbia, Serbia lives for you". "Dear Slobo, you are our hero and you'll always be so," read another message.

President Milsoevic's supporters hold pictures with the word "Hero" outside of his home in Pozarevac, Serbia.

Thousands of supporters gathered to pay their respects at President Milosevic's grave.

Mourner kissing President Milosevic's tomb stone.

# # #