Deposed leader is told: Your time is up

What Happens Next?

The fallen Yugoslav tyrant emerged from his Belgrade bolthole yesterday with dark circles under his eyes, to be told by the Russian Foreign Minister, Ivan Ivanov, that his time was up.

The fallen Yugoslav tyrant emerged from his Belgrade bolthole yesterday with dark circles under his eyes, to be told by the Russian Foreign Minister, Ivan Ivanov, that his time was up.

Yugoslav television showed Slobodan Milosevic shaking the Russian official's hand with his characteristically commanding grasp as they met in the living room of his private residence in the exclusive quarter of Dedinje.

His equally characteristic response was to decide to fight on, alone if necessary, despite the verdict of his Russian allies, the ballot box and the people on the street. Reporting on the meeting, Mr Ivanonov said: "He said he intends to play a prominent role in the political life of the country."

Even as crowds swirled jubilantly round the centre of Belgrade throughout the night and until dawn yesterday, one corner of Belgrade remained apparently unmoved.

Rumours had flown since the storming of the Belgrade parliament on Thursday that Mr Milosevic had already bowed to the inevitable and fled the country. In reality, he had fooled everybody once more. He was doing what he does best of all: staying put in his bunker.

As we drove in the early hours down the hill past the Uzicka Street residence - rebuilt since it was bombed by Nato last year - the two sentries outside the high-security gates of number 19 looked nervous in the extreme. It seemed clear they were doing more than standard night duty.

Two police cars were on duty immediately below the residence. Five police buses stood further down the hill, presumably in case the opposition decided - despite pleas from the president-elect, Vojislav Kostunica, to keep calm - to march on Dedinje in the middle of the night.

In the event, the area remained quiet. Mr Milosevic and his wife Mira were weighing their options. Backing down has never been high on the Mr Milosevic's agenda.

Even as dawn broke, it was still clear that nobody quite knew what was going to happen next. At a huge celebration rally in front of the parliament, the crowd again chanted the popular slogan: "Slobodan, save Serbia and kill yourself." After all, both of Mr Milosevic's parents committed suicide.

Seeking asylum in a sympathetic country such as Communist-run Belarus could be another option. But Mr Milosevic's brother Borislav, the Yugoslavian ambassador to Moscow, strongly ruled that out. "Why should he leave the country?" the ambassador said. "Half the population openly supports him. He is the leader of a major party."

But for a man who prides himself on being the Balkan Houdini, the collapse of his 13-year hold on power in Serbia presents by far the stiffest test of his known ability to wriggle out of tight holes.

His family is on the run. The windows of the cosmetics shop in Belgrade owned by his flashy playboy son Marko have been smashed. The Madonna nightclub Marko set up in their home town of Pozeravac has long closed.

While the President lies low in Dedinje, the rest of the family are thought to be holed up in the fortified bunker they own in eastern Serbia, not far from the spa town of Bor. There, deep in the thick pine forests on the Romanian border, which provided Yugoslavia's former dictator Josip Tito with his favourite hunting ground for bears and wild boar, the family sit and wait to see if papa can wriggle out of this one.

Few outsiders have ever penetrated the 1950s building constructed for the police force in Bor which Mr Milosevic purloined for his family to use as a country retreat. Locals stay well clear of Crni Vrh - the Black Peak - and its far-from-welcoming barbed-wire fence, police dogs and search lights.

The President - now the ex-president - does not welcome visitors. There are reports of workmen being rushed to the site in recent days to work on underground fortifications, which could turn out to be Milosevic's last redoubt.

Marko Ruzic, of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) says a convoy of jeeps bearing members of the presidential family was spotted hurtling through the twisting lanes of eastern Serbia towards Crni Vrh on Thursday night, after the popular uprising in Belgrade a few hours before made it clear the game was up. No one saw the ex-president in the convoy, though bystanders spotted Marko's landrover hurtling past.

Mr Milosevic's vital support within the army appeared to have collapsed. The top leadership of the Yugoslav army let it be known that the soldiers would only act if their military facilities, personnel and material goods came under direct threat.

Also significantly, the Yugoslav Constitutional Court, which had backed Mr Milosevic until yesterday, ruled that Mr Kostunica won the election despite massive fraud. The latest court decision, which was announced by the government-in-waiting, paves the way for Mr. Kostunica legally to take office.

Mr Milosevic has already lost the support of the once-loyal state media and his monolithic Socialist party, and it is becoming difficult to find anybody who will admit to having voted for him in the elections just two weeks ago.

But the government-to-be reported yesterday that it had "physically prevented" Milosevic allies from transferring £13m of state funds abroad.

After leading his country into four disastrous wars that tore the former Yugoslavia apart, Mr Milosevic could still miscalculate again. Carl Bildt, the Swedish former UN envoy to the Balkans, said: "Milosevic is a skilled tactician but an absolutely appalling strategist. If he had been in the military he would have won every battle and lost the war."