The body of Slobodan Milosevic arrived in Serbia today for private burial in the grounds of his provincial home, after days of pressure by remaining loyalists for a high-profile funeral in the capital.
A regular Yugoslav airlines flight carrying the remains of the former Yugoslav president from Amsterdam touched down at Belgrade airport among snow-covered fields, a 15-minute drive from the city centre.
His coffin, taped in a black plastic sheath, was draped in the Serbian flag and kissed by senior officials of his Socialist Party, then covered with a wreath of red roses.
A crowd of a few hundred mourners outside the airport placed wreaths on the hearse as it drove slowly past and sobbing women threw roses in its path. Belgraders lined overpasses on the highway into town for a glimpse of the convoy.
The Socialists plan to display the casket tomorrow in a tent on the sidewalk outside the old federal parliament in the heart of the city -- the same sidewalk that in 2000 overflowed with anti-Milosevic protesters shouting: "He's finished".
They are seeking permission to bury him in the grounds of the family property in Pozarevac, his sleepy hometown 80 km (50 miles) east of Belgrade. The Milosevic clan once ran businesses in the town, including a bakery, a disco club and a theme park.
Supporters left flowers and candles on the steel gates to the compound of three houses set in a large garden.
The Socialists and ultranationalist Radical Party initially sought a state funeral for Milosevic, then something akin to one, to create a martyr to their nationalist cause. A threat to shame the government by burying him in Russia failed.
Milosevic, 64, died in detention at The Hague tribunal on Saturday a few months before a verdict was due in his war crimes trial. His body was sent home almost five years after his dramatic extradition by the reformists who toppled him.