BELGRADE --Serb journalist Tamara Skrozza spent the 1990s campaigning against former President Slobodan Milosevic. 

She hosted radio shows and marched on Oct. 5, 2000, when the Serb president was finally ousted from power. 

"When we Serbs hate we really hate, and I hated Milosevic," she said. 

But when the news came on this chilly Saturday that Milosevic had been found dead apparently of natural causes in his cell in The Hague, she found herself indifferent. 

Her Balkan country of 10 million "has other things to worry about," she said, listing prospective membership in the European Union, missing war-crimes suspect Ratko Mladic and talks over the future status of the southern state of Kosovo. 

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's government has completely turned away from Milosevic, the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes. He faced 66 counts of war crimes, and his trial was entering its fifth year. 

The Hague was "where Milosevic belonged," said Vladeta Jankovic, a special adviser to Kostunica. 

Most Serbs interviewed Saturday expressed disinterest in Milosevic's passing. The streets of Belgrade hummed quietly with shoppers. 

Thirty-year-old Relja Radojevic lost his youth in the poverty and violence of Milosevic's rule, which from 1989 to 2000 dragged Serbia into four losing wars, including a North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing of Belgrade, but he wasn't planning any celebration Saturday. 

"For us, Milosevic has been dead for a few years," he said. 

Milosevic still retains some pockets of popular support here, and supporters are expected to stage rallies in the next few days to commemorate Milosevic. 

Although most Serbs acknowledge that Milosevic and his brand of nationalism ruined their country, 75% have a "negative" opinion of the war-crimes tribunal set up in The Hague, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February. 

"Even Saddam got to be judged in Bagdad," said Dragan Babic, a journalist with Radio Belgrade. He calls the trial "humiliating," and Serbia's accused war criminals mere soldiers who were "victims of propaganda." 

But in newspapers and conversation here, Milosevic had, at least before Saturday, long ago been replaced by other issues. 

Serbia desperately wants to hold onto Kosovo, a southern state that Serbs call their spiritual homeland and the center of their Orthodox Christianity. They fought a battle there against the Ottoman Turks in 1389. But the majority of the region's population, 90% Albanian, want to secede. 

The Kosovar Albanians say they'll accept nothing short of full independence. A second round of U.N.-sponsored talks is due to begin March 17. 

Serbia is currently part of a federation that includes Montenegro, but on May 21, that state of 600,000 is expected to vote for independence. Montenegro, however, doesn't resonate like Kosovo, and most Serbs say they're not troubled by the secession. 

A third issue is missing war-crimes suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic. The E.U. says it can't begin talks with Serbia on possible membership until it turns in the general. If that happens, Serbia can expect to join the E.U. about 2015, E.U. diplomats say. 

Kostunica's government says it would arrest Mladic - if they knew were he was. Foreign diplomats say Mladic is likely being hidden by Milosevic's network of soldiers and henchmen. Critics say the government is less than eager to bring in Mladic because 64% of Serbs say they have a "positive" view of the general, who is viewed as a quixotic hero. 

About half of Serbs don't believe that the crimes Mladic is accused of, the massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995, actually happened. 

Part of Milosevic's genius was controlling domestic media, journalists and diplomats here say. 

"Most Serbs have never been exposed to the truth," said Skrozza, these days a reporter for Vreme, a weekly magazine. 

"Hopefully this will turn a page for us," said Miroslav Milicevic, a prominent surgeon and vice president of the anti-corruption council set up in 2001 to clean up the fraud and bribery culture that developed under Milosevic's reign. 

Milosevic was born in 1941, and was educated as a communist. Both his parents committed suicide. 

Biographers describe him as a bureaucratic type and skilled organizer. He rose to power in the late 1980s by changing his political philosophy from communism to nationalism. He argued that Yugoslavia should stay together under a dominant Serbia. 

An early defining moment was a speech in front of a million people on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo in 1989. Recalling the heroic victory, he said, "Six centuries later, again we are in battles and quarrels. They are not armed battles, though such things should not be excluded yet." 

Some 300,000 people are estimated to have died in the wars during Milosevic's leadership. 

March 11, 2006 13:14 ET (18:14 GMT)