The commemoration was held in front of the Federal Assembly, where in 2000 a mass of people forced Milosevic to recognise defeat at elections for president of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).
Agencies reported that dozens of thousands of people attended the commemoration, while the police estimated there were about 80,000.
Bogoljub Bjelica, a member of Sloboda, an association for Milosevic's defence, read out a speech Milosevic gave in October 2000 before recognising Vojislav Kostunica's election victory. In the speech Milosevic said the West wanted to put Serbia under control via the DOS opposition coalition and labelled then opposition leader Zoran Djindjic as a "collaborator of the military alliance" which was at war against Serbia and Montenegro.
"Slobodan is alive, he is not dead as long as there are Serbs and Serbia," said Bjelica, while the gathered added, "This is Serbia".
Among the speakers were Mihajlo Markovic, one of the founders of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), and Ramsey Clark, former US public prosecutor and long-standing Milosevic supporter.
No one from the incumbent authorities of Serbia and Serbia-Montenegro attended the commemoration.
Serbian Radical Party secretary-general Aleksandar Vucic read out a note from Hague tribunal indictee Vojislav Seselj, who said that Milosevic "was monstrously killed by The Hague's evil-doers" because "only a dead letter on paper remained from the indictment". Seselj also vowed he would "fight The Hague's criminals with the same intensity".
Speeches were also delivered by numerous guests from Russia, including Zatulin Konstantin Fedorovich, a United Russia party deputy at the Duma, Russian Communist Party president Gennady Zyuganov, and Duma vice speaker Sergey Baburin, who was introduced as "Serbia's wartime comrade". They all said that Serbia and Milosevic "received the blow of new globalisation" and that Milosevic was killed at the Hague tribunal.
Guards of honour stood by the coffin with Milosevic's body which was covered with a Serbian flag without insignia, including Russian army generals, retired generals, including Hague indictee Dragoljub Ojdanic, a former FRY Army chief-of-staff, Aco Tomic, a former chief of military security and security advisor to Kostunica when he was FRY president, and Bozidar Delic, a witness during Milosevic's trial in The Hague.
Beta news agency was told at the Defence Ministry that under existing provisions, retired officers were banned from appearing in public in uniform, and that the ministry was honouring the Supreme Defence Council's decision that Milosevic could not be buried with state honours.
The commemoration was secured by members of the Serbian Interior Ministry. There were also banners reading "To Slobo the Hero, from the Wolves of Manjaca", "NATO Fascists", "The Hague, Killer of Serbs", "Russia, Russia" and "Turkish Wolf". Before the commemoration the gathered shouted "Tadic, You are an Ustasha", "Give Us Back Seselj", "We Won't Give Up Mladic", "We Won't Give Up Kosovo", "Slobo, You Serb, Serbia is With You". They interrupted many speakers by shouting "Slobo, Slobo", "This is Serbia" and "Russia, Russia".
Closing the commemoration, SPS vice president Milorad Vucelic highlighted the absence of any representative of the incumbent authorities and that the funeral would not be held with state honours. "Today he is being buried not by the state but by the people. This is a people's funeral," he said.
He closed by saying that Milosevic was "a winner from now until forever" and "Until the ultimate victory, president!"
Radio B92 reported that one person died during the commemoration and that a dozen asked for medical assistance.
The commemoration ended at 1355 hours. Organisers said that due to the long duration of the commemoration, the funeral in Pozarevac, Milosevic's birth place, was rescheduled from 2 to 5 pm.
Beta reported that buses with people from a number of Serbian towns arrived to attend the commemoration and the burial at Pozarevac.
According to the SPS, more than 70,000 people passed by Milosevic's coffin at the Museum of the Revolution in Belgrade from Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning, while the media and numerous agencies mentioned half that number.
About 30 buses departed for Pozarevac from Banja Luka to attend the funeral, travel agencies in the Bosnian Serb entity said, while Milosevic's supporters laid flowers and lit candles at a makeshift pedestal in Banja Luka's main square.