Home > Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity > Milosevic, Slobodan

[AUGUST 20, 1941–]

Serb nationalist and Yugoslav leader

Slobodan Milosevic, who presided over Yugoslavia's disintegration in the 1990s, was born in Pozarevac, Serbia, the largest of the six Yugoslav republics. (Yugoslavia then included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and the autonomous regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina as well.) During an unhappy childhood, Milosevic was abandoned by his father, an orthodox priest, and later survived the suicides of both his father and schoolteacher mother. In high school Milosevic met his future wife Mirjana Markovic, daughter of a leading communist family.

In 1964, following his legal studies at the University of Belgrade, Milosevic embarked on a career as a communist technocrat, serving in a variety of government and industry positions. In 1984 he was appointed to lead the Belgrade Communist Party and two years later became head of the Serbian Communist Party.

Milosevic rose to national prominence in April 1987. A rioting Serb crowd had surrounded the town hall in Kosovo Polje, claiming mistreatment by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Milosevic quieted the crowd, assuring them, "No one should dare to beat you!" As word of this event spread, Milosevic's popularity grew dramatically throughout Serbia, solidifying his reputation as an ardent Serb nationalist. In 1989 Milosevic became President of Serbia.

Pursuing his dream of an ethnically pure "greater Serbia," Milosevic purged the Yugoslav Army of non-Serbs and fomented unrest in areas outside Serbia with sizable minority Serb populations. The multiethnic Yugoslav state quickly disintegrated. In 1991 Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia declared their independence. Milosevic encouraged Serbs in Croatia to take up arms and, assisted by the Yugoslav Army, seized control of large portions of Croatia.

In 1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina seceded. Bosnian Serbs, supported by Milosevic's military and paramilitary forces, rebelled, beginning a brutal struggle to "purify" Bosnia of its Muslim inhabitants. During the ensuing conflict, hundreds of thousands in Bosnia were killed, raped, and confined in concentration camps. Despite the dispatch of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping troops, the international community was unable to halt the genocide. The war finally ended in 1994 when a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ultimatum forced a Serb ceasefire. In December 1995 a permanent peace agreement was signed in Dayton, Ohio, by Milosevic and the presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.

In July 1997, after serving the maximum two terms as President of Serbia, the Federal Parliament appointed Milosevic as president of the rump Yugoslav state, which consisted only of Serbia (including Kosovo and Vojvodina) and Montenegro.

In 1998, in response to an ethnic Albanian uprising in Kosovo, Milosevic sent in his military. Within weeks hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees were forced to flee to neighboring countries. Fearing a repeat of the ethnic cleansing that had occurred in Bosnia, NATO delivered an ultimatum to Milosevic to halt the offensive. When its warnings were ignored, NATO began a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999. After over two months of continuous air strikes Milosevic agreed to a plan for Serb withdrawal, the return of refugees, and UN administration of Kosovo.

In May 1999 the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted Milosevic and four subordinates for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war during the Kosovo conflict. Milosevic, however, remained Yugoslav president and beyond the reach of the Court.

On September 24, 2000, Yugoslavs went to the polls for the first-ever direct presidential elections. Although it initially appeared that Milosevic's challenger, Vojislav Kostunica, had won the election, the Milosevic-controlled election commission announced that Kostunica had failed to gain an absolute majority, mandating a runoff. Angry Kostunica supporters took to the streets, prompting strikes and protests that swept the country. On October 5 a massive anti-Milosevic mob rampaged through Belgrade and seized Parliament. Milosevic conceded defeat, and on October 7 Kostunica was sworn in as the new President of Yugoslavia.

On April 1, 2001, Milosevic was arrested at his Belgrade villa. He was handed over to the UN tribunal on June 28 and taken to The Hague to stand trial. In addition to the Kosovo charges, Milosevic was indicted on charges related to the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, including violations of the laws and customs of war, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, complicity in genocide, and genocide.

In his first court appearance on July 3, Milosevic refused to enter a plea, accusing the tribunal of being an "illegal" body established by his enemies in the West. The Court entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. On February 12, 2002, Milosevic's trial began, with Milosevic acting as his own attorney. In 2003 Milosevic ran for a seat in the Serbian Parliament from his prison cell and won, highlighting the resurgence of Serb nationalism since his departure.

Milosevic's trial has suffered significant delays due to his fragile health and the resignation of the presiding judge. In February 2004 the prosecution rested its case after presenting over 200 witnesses and 29,000 pages of evidence. Milosevic began his defense by submitting a list of 1,631 intended witnesses, including British prime minister Tony Blair and former U.S. president Bill Clinton.

SEE ALSO Bosnia and Herzegovina; International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; Immunity; Kosovo; Yugoslavia

Daniel L. Nadel