Two men died of heart failure and over 50 elderly people were rushed to Belgrade hospitals, but riot police stood idle during Slobodan Milosevic's funeral.
A considerable number of paramilitary police units, known as gendarmerie, were deployed in full riot gear around the Parliament building and nearby streets in downtown Belgrade -- where between 80,000 and 100,000 supporters of the former Serbian president gathered at noon Saturday for a two-hour funeral ceremony.
After the motorcade with the coffin bearing Milosevic's body had left the area, the gendarmes were withdrawn from the streets.
The motorcade took the coffin to Pozarevac, 50 miles east of the capital, for a private burial service.
"The police force have not intervened and nobody has been detained," said Dragana Kajganic, a spokeswoman for the Serbian Interior Ministry.
Milosevic was buried in the backyard of his Pozarevac home Saturday evening.
Dragic Radovic, head of the Belgrade hospital emergency department, said two elderly men died of heart attacks in the streets. More than 50 people, most of them with chronic illnesses, were rushed to hospitals during the funeral ceremony.
© Copyright 2006 by United Press International
