Milosevic wife applies for visa

Markovic spoke to her husband after his initial appearance in court on Tuesday

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Slobodan Milosevic's wife has applied for a visa to visit her imprisoned husband, the Associated Press reports.

Mira Markovic has applied for a visa to the Netherlands, with the requests for travel documents submitted in Belgrade by lawyers for Markovic, Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Frank de Bruin said on Friday, the agency reported.

Both Markovic and her daughter-in-law plan to visit the U.N. detention facility where the former Yugoslav president is being held pending trial on war crimes charges.

Permission for the visa can only be granted once the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Cabinet has approved it.

The European Union said on Thursday that Markovic could visit her husband despite being on a list of Yugoslavs barred from entering the 15-nation bloc.

Under United Nations law, all family members are permitted to visit suspects at the International War Crimes tribunal, where the former Yugoslav president is on trial for alleged war crimes in Kosovo in 1999.

Mira Markovic had been expected to appeal against her EU travel ban -- introduced during the Serb clampdown in Kosovo two years ago -- which covered hundreds of Serbian and Yugoslav officials.

The list has been progressively reduced since the fall of Milosevic in October 2000 and now numbers just a handful of close relatives and associates of the former president.

Markovic and Milosevic were childhood sweethearts who married in 1965. She is widely regarded as the driving force behind his career.

She has been referred to as the "Red Witch" because of her neo-communist beliefs and passion for mysticism -- and "Lady MacBeth" for doing everything she can for her husband and his career.

Serbian newspapers have said Markovic may be planning to rent or buy an apartment in The Hague to be close to her 59-year-old husband -- though Dutch officials say that would be legally impossible if she had only a short-stay entry permit, Reuters reported.