Belgrade, March 12 (Reuters): Serbs paid emotional tribute to assassinated reformist Zoran Djindjic today, the third anniversary of his death, but there was no outpouring of grief for Slobodan Milosevic.

“There will be no turbulence, no disturbances on the political scene or on the streets of Serbia (over Milosevic),” said former premier Zoran Zivkovic, laying a wreath to Djindjic whom he replaced in the traumatic days of March 2003.

“Radicalism in Serbia exists, and it has its limit which has been reached. And I think nothing can raise the rating of these parties any further,” Zivkovic said. Those to whom Milosevic was a hero “were a minority 10 years ago, let alone today”.

Former justice minister Vladan Batic said if Serbs “have not learnt their lesson after everything that has happened to us, then I fear we are lost. But I don’t believe this will happen”.

Batic predicted a brief flurry of activity, featuring some infighting over who gets Milosevic’s Socialist Party mantle.

Two of five Sunday newspapers ? from the same stable ? published provocative headlines saying Milosevic was “murdered” by The Hague war crimes tribunal. The others, including the pro-government daily Politika, had extensive reaction and background stories under neutral headlines: “Death of Milosevic”.

The daily Blic noted that Milosevic’s widow, Mira Markovic, faces arrest on corruption charges if she returns to Serbia from Russia where she fled in 2003. She wants his funeral in Moscow.

Apart from a vigil by 100 diehard and mostly elderly supporters at the Socialist Party office, there was little display of emotion for Milosevic, the strongman who led Serbia into war, international sanctions, poverty and pariah status, and was branded as the “Butcher of the Balkans”. He was found dead in his cell in The Hague yesterday.

But hundreds, including President Boris Tadic streamed through driving rain to Belgrade’s main cemetery to place wreaths at the grave of Djindjic.

The dynamic young premier who sent Milosevic to The Hague in 2001 was assassinated by hardliners on March 12 three years ago, in a terrible blow that knocked the nation’s infant reform movement to its knees but failed to snuff it out.

Some analysts think Milosevic’s sudden death could make him a martyr for those Serbs who regard him as a heroic patriot victimised by major powers hostile to Serbia, for reasons no one can ever quite explain.