Supporters of the late Serbian president Slobodan Milošević at his grave in the town of Pozarevac, Serbia on March 10, 2007. (Photo: AFP)

"We thought too much about our grandfathers and not enough about our grandchildren." This is how a Croatian peace activist explained the wars in the former Yugoslavia at a seminar I attended in 1994, in the Croatian town of Osijek, not far from what was then the front line.

The pull of the dead on the living was again on display in Serbia last weekend, as supporters of the one man who did more than anyone else to get those wars started, the late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, gathered at his grave on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of his death last year, while in custody at The Hague.

On Sunday, the English-language Web site Serbianna reported that the current foreign minister of Serbia, Vuk Draskovic, warned in an interview that ultranationalists who supported Milosevic could take power in Belgrade, if the United Nations approves a plan that would allow the province of Kosovo to move towards independence.

Draskovic did not specify how the extremists could try regain power, after ruling with Milosevic in the 1990s. However, the Serbian Radical Party leader, Tomislav Nikolic, on Thursday threatened a popular uprising if Kosovo became independent.

The Serbian Radical Party, which governed with Mr. Milosevic in the 1990s, won the most seats in Serbia's most recent election, despite the fact that their official leader, Vojislav Seselj, is himself now in custody at The Hague. As The Associated Press has reported, earlier this month two moderate Serbian parties agreed to form a coalition government, in part to keep the Radicals out of power.

Some opponents of the late Serbian president have taken a very different approach to the effort to banish Mr. Milosevic's spirit from Serbia once and for all. The A.P. reported last week that

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 late autocrat's death. ...

He slightly damaged the grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac by inserting a 1-meter-long (3-feet-long) hawthorn pole sideways into the grave, aiming at what he said was the late president's heart.

Miroslav Milosevic said that he informed the police of his intentions.

According to the Croatian Web site Javno, the local police simply warned the man with the stake to beware of the dead president.

"I called the police on my cell phone and let them know where I was and what I was doing and they responded by telling me to be careful or Milosevic's hand might get me from the grave. After I had staked the grave, I went and reported myself to the police."