Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro ? The flag-draped coffin of Slobodan Milosevic went on public display Thursday, but it drew relatively few mourners paying tribute to the former president who died while on trial for genocide and war crimes.

Hundreds of loyal Milosevic supporters – not the thousands that organizers had predicted – lined up to view his casket in a museum dedicated to the late communist dictator Josip Broz Tito in Belgrade’s plush Dedinje district.

When the doors opened, the crowd scrambled to get in, pushing back security guards amid cries of “Slobo! Slobo!” A window shattered in the melee, and police were called in to keep order.

Inside, a quiet line formed, with people passing by the closed casket, heads bowed. Some sobbed, while others made the sign of the cross. An elderly man, exhausted, fell briefly to the floor.

A large, framed color photograph of Milosevic was placed in front of the casket, and Milosevic’s closest Socialist associates took turns standing next to it in groups of six as an honor guard.

Outside, supporters lit candles in the snow while waiting their turn, and women held red roses or bouquets of mimosas.

But the turnout was nowhere near the huge crowds Milosevic once commanded in his heyday.

Authorities formally rejected a state funeral, leaving it to Milosevic’s party to organize the ceremony. The Socialists maintained it was still a dignified moment, a “people’s burial.”

After being denied to display Milosevic’s casket at more prominent places, including the parliament building, the Socialists opted for the Museum of Revolution – a decaying building holding gifts Tito received from foreign statesmen during his rule of ex-Yugoslavia from World War II until he died in 1980.

The museum is a few hundred yards from the villa where Milosevic was arrested April 1, 2001, two months before his handover to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Milosevic, 64, died Saturday at a detention center near the tribunal, which was trying him on 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide. He was the first head of state to be extradited by his country for trial by the U.N. court.