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Dictionary of Gross Human Rights Violations

Milosevic, Slobodan

Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Serbia from 1989-1997 and of Yugoslavia from 1997-2000, achieved infamy for his role in directing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, in the former Yugoslavia. Milosevic was born on August 22nd 1941 in a small town east of Belgrade. He grew up in a Montenegrin family of relatively modest means and suffered repeated tragedy (both of his parents and his uncle committed suicide). He began his career as a banker but eventually moved into politics and, as an ideologically-committed functionary, gradually rose through the ranks of the communist party hierarchy. Milosevic transformed himself into a populist Serb nationalist politician in 1987, when, as the leader of the communist party in Serbia, he was tasked with addressing the increasing demands of Kosovo Albanians for autonomy. He chose at this point to invoke Serbian mythohistory and to portray himself as the defender of the Serbian nation (via the Serbian minority in Kosovo).

Milosevic achieved complete control of Serbia just as Yugoslavia was falling apart (he also exercised de facto control over the rump Yugoslavia and in 1997 became the President of Yugoslavia, namely Serbia and Montenegro). His first order of business was conspiring with President Franco Tudjman of Croatia to carve Bosnia up between the new Yugoslavia and Croatia. Milosevic’s ‘grand design’ was to annex neighbouring regions and alter their ethnic makeup in order to create a “Greater Serbia.” In a series of wars (Croatia-Serbia/Yugoslavia 1991-1995, Bosnia 1992-1995, and Kosovo 1999) Milosevic sought to do just that through the intimidation and forcible displacement (“ethnic cleansing”) of other ethnic groups. In Bosnia Milosevic trained, armed, and supported Bosnian Serb militia groups that carried out genocide against Bosnian Croats and Muslims. In Kosovo there was also an attempt to alter the ethnic balance of power in favour of the Serbs (and to the disadvantage of the Albanian Kosovars). This series of wars were nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe and they resulted in gross human rights violations such as genocide, crimes against humanity (including the systematic use of rape to spread terror), and countless war crimes.

Milosevic was indicted on sixty-six counts of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity on May 27, 1999 and was handed over by the Yugoslav government to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on March 31, 2001 (about a year after losing the election and being ousted from office through mass protests). His indictment was issued largely on the basis of command responsibility and also participating in a “joint criminal enterprise” that knowingly conspired to commit crimes. The Milosevic trial was an exhaustive affair that dragged on for four years. Milosevic defended himself in the trial and used the opportunity as a platform to maintain the support of his base in Serbia. Justice proved to be elusive however, as on March 11 2006 Milosevic died of heart failure, bringing the trial to an end. The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICTY issued the following statement:

During the prosecution case, 295 witnesses testified and 5000 exhibits were presented to the court. This represents a wealth of evidence that is on the record. After the presentation of the prosecution case, the Trial Chamber, on 16 June 2004, rejected a defense motion to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence, thereby confirming, in accordance with Rule 98bis, that the prosecution case contains sufficient evidence capable of supporting a conviction on all 66 counts. The Defense was given the same amount of time as the prosecution to present its case. There were in total 466 hearing days. 4 hours per day. Only 40 hours were left in the Defense case, and the trial was likely to be completed by the end of the spring.

Even though Milosevic never received his judgement in a court of law, history will judge Milosevic to be responsible for much of the human misery of the Balkan wars.

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