On Sunday, it was the first anniversary of the death of autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, who died in a cell of the detention centre of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on 11 March last year. Milosevic, who suffered from chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure, died of a heart attack during his trial at which he was charged with genocide and war crimes during wars in Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.
Factions of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) that used to be led by Milosevic, visited Milosevic's grave in the yard of his wife's house in the town of Pozarevac on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, when the SPS leadership came to hold a wreath-laying ceremony on the grave under a lime tree in front of Mirjana Markovic's house, about 2,000 followers flocked in that town southeast of Belgrade. On Sunday, about 400 'mourners' arrived in Pozarevac for this purpose.
None of the Milosevic family, i.e. his wife and his son and daughter, attended these events. Last year they did not show up for the funeral. Mrs. Markovic Milosevic and the son Marko are hiding in Russia, while daughter Marija Milosevic lives in Montenegro. The wife and the son are facing criminal charges in Serbia.
During yesterday's commemoration, members of the "Otpor" (Resistance) nongovernmental organisation, who opposed the Milosevic regime, unveiled a plaque reading "Street of Victims of Slobodan Milsoevic" in the other section of Pozarevac.
On Monday, Serbia is commemorating the fourth anniversary of the death of reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who was assassinated in the yard of the government's building in Belgrade on 12 March 2003.
Djindjic, who was received favourably by Western nations, played a prominent role in the presidential elections of the then Yugoslavia in September 2000 and in the 5 October uprising that overthrew the Milosevic regime, and then led 18-party Democratic Opposition coalition to victory in the Serbian elections of December 2000. He became Prime Minister of Serbia on 25 January 2001.
Immediately upon his assassination in March 2003, a state of emergency was introduced in the country.
An investigation has shown that members of the Serbian Interior Ministry's Unit for Special Operations (known as red berets) and mobsters of the Belgrade underworld organised Djindic's assassination.
Following the order from the said unit's commander, Milorad Ulemek a.k.a. Legija, a unit member, Zvezdan Jovanovic, shot Djindjic dead.
Before that Djindjic survived several attempts on his life.
Djindjic's Democratic Party (DS), led now by Serbia's President Boris Tadic, is to hold commemorations at his grave and on the site of his assassination on Monday.