Man pierces Milosevic's grave with pole to ban evil spirit

Man pierces Milosevic's grave with pole

Yahoo! News
Mon Mar 5

BELGRADE, Serbia - Former President Slobodan Milosevic's grave has been desecrated by a man who pierced it with a wooden pole in an ancient Balkan ritual to make sure that an evil spirit never returns, his former party said Monday.

The man, whose name is Miroslav Milosevic but who is not related to the ex-Serbian president, said he carried out the "performance" to spite Milosevic admirers who have been preparing to mark the first anniversary of the autocrat's death.

Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, which ruled Serbia with a strong fist in the 1990s, condemned the "vandalism" committed Saturday by the Milosevic-era dissident.

He slightly damaged the grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac by inserting a 3-foot-long pole into the grave, aiming at what he said was the late president's heart.

Slobodan Milosevic died March 11, 2006 while on trial before a U.N. war crimes tribunal for his role in the 1990s breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

The Socialists demanded punishment for Miroslav Milosevic because he "desecrated the burial site of a great president and statesman." They also criticized the police for "doing nothing to prosecute the attacker."