Slobodan Milosevic’s Widow Mirjana Markovic Buried in Serbia

Mirjana Markovic with her husband, Slobodan Milosevic, in 1997. Photo: Srdjan Suki/EPA.

The urn containing the ashes of Mirjana Markovic, widow of former Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, was buried next to her late husband in the garden of their family home in the eastern Serbian town of Pozarevac on Saturday.

The burial was attended by several political associates of the Milosevic family, including two convicted war criminals - former deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia Nikola Sainovic and Serbian Radical Party leader and sitting MP Vojislav Seselj, who organised the funeral.

Markovic's daughter Marija Milosevic did not attend, but sent a letter that was read at the funeral which chastises the media for their reporting on her mother's role in the period of Milosevic's rule.

"Goebbels is nothing compared to the propaganda against us in Serbian media," the letter reads.

Former Health Minister from Markovic's Yugoslav United Left party, Milovan Bojic, gave a speech celebrating Milosevic as a "great leader" and "Serbian martyr", while saying of his wife that she "radiated kindness".

Officials of the Socialist Party of Serbia, which was established by Milosevic and is part of the current Serbian government, laid a wreath at the grave.

A number of citizens also gathered to pay their respects to Markovic, who passed away at the age of 76 from complications related to pneumonia.

Markovic left Serbia for Russia in 2003 after Milosevic was sent to The Hague to stand trial for wartime crimes, although he died in 2006 before the verdict in his trial. She was given political asylum by Moscow.

She and her son Marko and daughter Marija were all wanted in Serbia for crimes ranging from corruption, abuse of...