Dead Bosnia Hero Focus of War Crimes Inquiry

More than 100,000 mourners gathered Wednesday in heavy rain for the funeral of the Bosnian wartime leader Alija Izetbegovic as word of his investigation for war crimes cast a pall over the ceremony.

Hours before Mr. Izetbegovic's funeral began in Sarajevo, the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague confirmed that he had been under investigation.

Mr. Izetbegovic, 78, died Sunday of chronic heart disease.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutors, Florence Hartmann, told reporters in The Hague that he had been under investigation.

Mr. Izetbegovic led the Bosnian fight for independence from the former Yugoslavia and many Bosnian Muslims see him as the ''father of the nation'' who defended them against Serbian aggression and genocide, and fought Serbian and Croatian separatism in the war from 1992 to 1995. After the war, he was twice elected to the nation's three-member collective presidency.

The police said more than 100,000 people gathered in front of the Parliament and lined streets.

Mr. Izetbegovic's coffin, draped in a rain-drenched Bosnian flag, was carried on a military vehicle to the old part of town.

Hundreds of members of the crowd in turn lofted it above their heads to a grave among the ranks of Muslims who died in the siege of Sarajevo. The siege, in which 12,000 people were killed, began in 1992 and lasted 43 months.

Mourners reacted with dismay to the news from The Hague. A middle-aged Muslim cleric said it was ''shameful,'' adding the tribunal should have spoken out while Mr. Izetbegovic was alive as he was ready to face the court.

Rasim Kadic, a moderate Muslim politician, said the international community was making aggressors and victims equal. ''Until the end they treated him like from the first day of the war -- with an arms embargo and no help to defend ourselves,'' he said.

Bosnian Serbs, and many Croats, accuse Mr. Izetbegovic of being a Muslim fundamentalist responsible for war crimes. The former prime minister, Milorad Dodik, a Bosnian Serb, said he was ''responsible for wartime atrocities against thousands of Serbs and Croats.''