Hundreds of thousands of mourners silently followed the funeral procession yesterday of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, assassinated by a sniper believed to be acting on the orders of gangster bosses.
It was the biggest gathering Serbia had seen since a mass uprising led by Djindjic and other reformers toppled former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000, after a decade of Balkan wars and international ostracism for the impoverished republic.
Mourners, many in tears, packed streets strewn with flowers as the procession of the 50-year-old leader's body made its way under tight security from Saint Sava cathedral to Belgrade's New Cemetery, where it was laid to rest with military honours in the Alley of the Great Men.
Representatives of Western governments, including Foreign Minister George Papandreou of Greece, the current European Union president, were among those who paid their respects to the man they credit with ending Milosevic's authoritarian rule.
Allies, comparing him with late US President John F. Kennedy, vowed to press on with the Western-style reforms he spearheaded.
"A message to our foreign friends is that what you started will not change," Zoran Zivkovic, a deputy leader of Djindjic's Democratic Party and tipped to become new prime minister, said shortly before the coffin was lowered into the ground.
Papandreou told the mourners the 15-nation EU would help Serbia bring the killers to justice. "Let the cowardly assassins know that they cannot and will not go unpunished."
Soldiers fired three volleys of shots into the sky.
A funeral ceremony was held in the cathedral with black-clad anti-terrorist troops on guard outside.
Djindjic's widow and their son and daughter, government ministers, black-robed religious leaders, army top brass and other dignitaries filed by his coffin, which lay in the huge church draped in the red, blue and white Serbian flag.
It was the biggest funeral in Belgrade since Communist dictator Josip Broz Tito died in 1980.
Mourners carried candles, flowers and posters of Djindjic and school mates of Djindjic's children lined the entrance to the cemetery holding white and red roses.
Serbian Orthodox bishop Amfilohije said Djindjic had begun a renewal of Serbia and "reached out a hand of reconciliation and peace" to Europe and the world.
"But he was killed by a brother's blind hatred," he told the congregation in the cathedral.
Djindjic, gunned down in the courtyard of the government building on Wednesday, was hailed by the West as a pro-democracy reformer but was a hate figure for hardline Serb nationalists.
The government imposed a state of emergency after Djindjic was killed. Authorities have pointed the finger at a powerful Belgrade criminal gang and at Milosevic-era police.
Djindjic enraged nationalists in 2001 by sending Milosevic to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague to face charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
The reformist leader had promised to crush the crime gangs that flourished during Milosevic's bloodstained rule, and which were allegedly linked to his secret service.
Police said late on Friday they had detained more than 180 people and seized large amounts of weapons and drugs but that key figures remained at large.
The force issued a public appeal for information about eight suspects, including an ex-commander of a special police unit that fought in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.