Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: Слободан Милошевић, pronounced [slobǒdan milǒːʃevitɕ] ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Serbian–Yugoslav politician who was the president of Serbia from 1989 to 1997 and president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 until his оverthrow in 2000. Formerly a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s, he led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until his death in 2006. Milošević played a major role in the Yugoslav Wars. During his reign, numerous anti-government and anti-war protests took place, and hundreds of thousands deserted the Milošević-controlled Yugoslav People's Army, leading to mass emigration from Serbia. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, Milošević was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes in connection with the Bosnian War, the Croatian War of Independence, and the Kosovo War. He became the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes.Born in Požarevac, he studied law at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law and joined the League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia as a student. During the 1960s, he served as advisor to the mayor of Belgrade Branko Pešić, and was later appointed chairman of Tehnogas and Beobanka as the protégé of Ivan Stambolić. Milošević came to power in 1987 after he dismissed his opponents, including Stambolić, from key positions. In the meantime, he wrote his political manifesto, Godine raspleta ("Years of unraveling"), made up of speeches he gave from 1984 to 1989. He was elected president of Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1989 and led the anti-bureaucratic revolution, reforming Serbia's constitution and transitioning the state into a multi-party system, reducing the power of autonomous provinces. Following the 1990 general elections, Milošević enacted dominant-party rule while his party retained control over key economic resources of the state.After resigning from the Yugoslav presidency in 2000 amidst demonstrations against the disputed presidential election, Milošević was arrested by Yugoslav federal authorities on 31 March 2001 on suspicion of corruption, abuse of power, and embezzlement. The initial investigation faltered, and he was extradited to the ICTY to stand trial for war crimes. Milošević denounced the Tribunal as illegal and refused to appoint counsel for his defence, conducting his own defence. He died of a heart attack in his prison cell in The Hague on 11 March 2006 before the trial could conclude. The Tribunal denied any responsibility for Milošević's death and said that he had refused to take prescribed medicines for his cardiac ailments and medicated himself instead.After Milošević's death, the ICTY and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals found that he was a part of a joint criminal enterprise that used violence such as ethnic cleansing to remove Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians from large parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded separately that there was no evidence linking him to genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian War, but did find that Milošević and others in Serbia had violated the Genocide Convention by failing to prevent the genocide from occurring and hold those involved accountable.Observers have described Milošević's political behavior as populist, eclectic and opportunist, and he has been considered an advocate of centralism. Milošević's rule has been described as authoritarian or autocratic, as well as kleptocratic, with numerous accusations of electoral fraud, political assassinations, suppression of press freedom and police brutality.