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Slobodan Milošević (also spelled as Slobodan Milosevic) listen (Template:Lang-sr, pronounced ); (20 August, 1941 – 11 March, 2006) was an ethnic Serb Yugoslavian leader.

He served as President of Serbia from 1989 to 1997 and then President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. He also led Serbia's ruling Socialist Party from its foundation in 1992 to 2001.

He was one of the key figures in the Yugoslav wars during the 1990s. In 1999, during the Kosovo War, he was indicted for allegedly having ordered or permitted the commission of war crimes in Kosovo. Later, the charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, including the charges of genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass rapes, were also added.

After he was forced to resign following a popular uprising against his rule, Milošević was extradited to stand trial at the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, but died after five years in prison with just fifty hours of testimony left before the conclusion of the trial. Milošević, who suffered chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure, died of a heart attack (see ]) according to the UN tribunal.

His requests to be treated for his health related problems in Moscow were refused due to fears he would try to escape (see ]).

Early career

Milošević was a Montenegrin Serb by origin, born in Požarevac, Yugoslavia, during the Axis occupation. His father, Svetozar Milošević, committed suicide while Slobodan was in high school. He is said to have studied for the Orthodox priesthood, but was never ordained. Slobodan's mother, Stanislava Milošević, hanged herself ten years later. Slobodan married Mirjana Marković.

Rise to power

After he was elected president of the Belgrade City Committee of the League of Communists in April 1984, Milošević publicly opposed nationalism. He prevented the publication of a book containing the works of Slobodan Jovanović, a distinguished Serbian historian, law professor and nationalist politician of the early twentieth century.

Milošević also advocated retaining Marxism as a school subject and publicly lambasted Belgrade's youth for their low turnout at the Communist Day of the Youth, claiming that their absence "desecrated" Tito's character and work.

Milošević emerged in April 1987 as the leading force in Serbian politics. His political positions have sometimes been termed as nationalist, although socialism and internationalism also marked his ideology. Later that year, while addressing a Serbian crowd in Kosovo gathered to protest about alleged brutality by local police, he told them that "No one has the right to beat you! No one will ever beat you again!".

This broke two important taboos in Yugoslav politics; that Communist officials should not publicly criticise their peers (the police were controlled by the local Communist administration) and that Party officials should not publicly side with one of Yugoslavia's ethnic groups (the local administration was dominated by ethnic Albanians, which the Kosovo Serbs resented). Stambolić later said that "he had seen that day as the end of Yugoslavia".

Meanwhile, Stambolić had become the party leader in the Serbian section of the League of Communists; in September 1987, he became the President of Serbia. To the dismay of senior figures in the party, he supported Milošević for election as the new party leader. Stambolić spent three days advocating Milošević as leader, managing to secure him a narrow victory, by the narrowest margin in the history of Serbian Communist Party internal elections.

Dragiša Pavlović, Milošević's fairly liberal successor at the head of the Belgrade Committee of the party, opposed Milošević's policies towards Kosovan Serbs, calling them "hastily-promised speed". Contrary to advice from Stambolić, Milošević denounced Pavlović as being soft on Albanian radicals.

On 23 September and 24 September, during a thirty-hour session of the Communist Central Committee broadcast live on state television, Milošević had Pavlović deposed. Embarrassed and under pressure from Milošević's supporters, Stambolić resigned a few days later.

In February 1988, Stambolić's resignation was formalized, allowing Milošević to take his place as President. Twelve years later, in the summer of 2000, Stambolić was kidnapped; his body was found in 2003 and Milošević charged with ordering his murder. In 2005, several members of the Serbian secret police and criminal gangs were convicted in Belgrade for a number of murders, including Stambolić's.

Milošević spent most of 1988/1989 focusing his politics on the "Kosovo problem". His subordinates organized public demonstrations – the so-called "antibureaucratic revolution" – which led to the elected leaderships of Vojvodina (6 October, 1988), Montenegro (10 January, 1989) and finally Kosovo itself (in February-March 1989) being removed. Azem Vllasi, leader of the Kosovo Albanian majority, was arrested; the special police's intervention during the subsequent Kosovo miners' strike resulted in thirty-two deaths.

On 28 March 1989, the National Assembly of Serbia, under Milošević's leadership, amended the Serbian constitution to greatly reduce the autonomy of its two provinces. The decision was hugely controversial, especially in Kosovo, where many Albanians had never accepted the legitimacy of Serbia's annexation of the province in 1912. A harsh regime was imposed which attracted widespread criticism from international human rights organisations, transnational bodies such as the European Community and other foreign governments. This caused great alarm in the other republics of Yugoslavia, where concerns were expressed that their own autonomous status could come under threat.

As nationalism grew within Yugoslavia, Milošević sought major constitutional changes. The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution had organised the country so that Serbia's status as the largest and most populous republic was counterbalanced by the way that the other republics were represented. The socialist Yugoslavia was at the time governed by an eight-member Presidency, representing the six republics plus Kosovo and Vojvodina. By ousting the government of Montenegro and replacing it with a more compliant one, Milošević effectively secured that republic's vote for himself; likewise the abolition of the autonomous governments of Vojvodina and Kosovo ensured that he controlled those votes as well. The Presidency was thus divided down the middle between Milošević's supporters and his opponents in the other republics, with four votes for each side. The result was stalemate and an increasing paralysis of Yugoslavia's federal government.

At the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in January 1990, Milošević's Serbian delegation campaigned for major constitutional changes which would give greater political power too. Slovenian and Croatian delegations (led by Milan Kučan and Ivica Račan respectively) strongly opposed this, seeing it as an attack on their own republics' status, and left the Congress in protest. This caused a deep rift in the League of Communists and effectively put an end to the Party as a unified organisation.

With the collapse of the Yugoslav League of Communists, Milošević presided over the Serbian party's transformation into the Socialist Party of Serbia (July 1990) and the adoption of a new Serbian constitution (September 1990) providing for the direct election of a president with increased powers. Milošević was subsequently re-elected president of the Serbian Republic in the direct elections of December 1990 and December 1992.

In the first free parliamentary elections of December 1990, Milošević's Socialist Party won 80.5% of the vote. The ethnic Albanians in Kosovo largely boycotted the election, effectively eliminating even what little opposition Milošević had. Milošević himself won the presidential election with an even higher percentage of the vote. Although the elections could not have been described as wholly free and fair – Milošević controlled much of the media as well as the election system itself – there is little doubt that at this time he genuinely enjoyed mass popular support in Serbia.

Milošević's rise to power happened amidst a growth of nationalism in all the former Yugoslavian republics following the collapse of communist governments throughout eastern Europe. In 1990, Slovenians elected a nationalist government under Milan Kučan, and the Croatians did the same with Franjo Tuđman. Communist single-party rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina was replaced by an unstable coalition of three ethnically-based parties.

The Yugoslav Wars

Yugoslavia's collapse became inevitable by the start of 1991, with the federal institutions completely deadlocked between pro- and anti-Milošević forces. In a televised address on 16 March 1991 Milošević declared that Yugoslavia was finished and that Serbia would no longer be bound by decisions of the Federal Presidency.

In June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia seceded from the federation, followed by the republics of Macedonia (September 1991) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (March 1992). The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) sought unsuccessfully to prevent Slovenia's secession by the use of force; however, Slovenia's Ten-Day War ended in a disastrous defeat for the federal forces. At this point, Milošević adopted a policy of establishing "all Serbs in one state," based on the ostensible premise that the large Serbian populations in Croatia (580,000) and Bosnia (1.36 million) should have the right to stay in Yugoslavia as they desired, arguing that the Yugoslav Constitution gave the right of self-determination to nations (Serbs, Croats, etc as a whole), not republics (Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, etc).

This policy – characterised by critics as a "Greater Serbia" in all but name – was, however, certain to produce a violent conflict. The Serb minorities lived, for the most part, in ethnically mixed areas with large non-Serb populations in their midst. Their areas were also not contiguous with Serbia itself.

Croatia's Serbs began campaigning for autonomy or independence from Croatia as early as mid-1990 after the election of the Croatian nationalist Franjo Tudjman, with Milošević's full support. Through 1991 and early 1992, together with the Yugoslav People's Army, they engaged in a war against the Croatian government. The first leader of Serbs in Croatia, Milan Babić, has stated that Milošević was responsible for this and his successor Goran Hadžić publicly bragged about how he was "the extended hand of Slobodan Milošević".

War crimes prosecutors subsequently characterised the creation of the separatist Republic of Serbian Krajina as a "joint criminal enterprise" whose goal was "the forcible removal of the majority of the Croat and other non-Serb population from the approximately one-third of the territory of the Republic of Croatia that he planned to become part of a new Serb-dominated state." At the trial of Milan Babić, the ICTY found that the Serbian government was directly involved in the Croatian Serb rebellion, providing supplies, weapons, money and leadership.

In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina was plunged into war even before its formal declaration of independence. Bosnian Serb forces soon captured as much as 70% of the country, expelling hundreds of thousands of non-Serbs and killing many thousands more, often in massacres such as the Srebrenica. Again, war crimes prosecutors have characterised this as a "joint criminal enterprise" in which Milošević played a leading part. The ICTY likewise found that the Serbian government was directly involved in the conflict.

By 1995, however, the ongoing wars in Croatia and Bosnia had become an unsupportable burden for Serbia. The country had experienced hyperinflation and a drastic worsening of living standards, due to an economic collapse and the effect of international sanctions. Milošević sought to force the Croatian and Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table but was rebuffed by their nationalist leaderships. In response, despite his earlier support for their rebellions, he let it be known that they were on their own.

The Croatian War was brought to an end in August 1995 when Croatia's Operation Storm rapidly overran the Republic of Serbian Krajina. Almost the entire Croatian Serb population was expelled from Croatia in the process, fleeing into Bosnia and Serbia. Only a month later, the Bosnian Serbs were brought to the brink of military collapse by a combination of NATO air strikes and a joint Croatian/Bosniak ground offensive. Again, many hundreds of thousands of Serbs were forced into exile.

Milošević subsequently negotiated the Dayton Agreement in the name of the Bosnian Serbs, ending the conflict. As the agreement finally brought an end to the war in Bosnia, Milošević was credited in the West with being one of the pillars of Balkan peace. But crucially, the Dayton Agreement did not grant amnesty for the war crimes committed during the conflict – an omission on Milošević's part that was to pave the way for his eventual prosecution.

Milošević was limited to two terms as President of Serbia, but at the end of his term of office he instead stood for the hitherto relatively unimportant post of President of Yugoslavia (which by this time consisted of only Serbia and Montenegro). He won easily and assumed office on 23 July, 1997. His old post passed into the hands of a loyal supporter. In Montenegro, however, the pro-Milošević old guard was pushed aside by the ambitious President Milo Đukanović, who became an increasingly bitter opponent of Milošević.

That same year, an armed rebellion broke out in Kosovo against Serbian rule. The separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began to launch attacks against Serbian and Yugoslav security forces as well as Serbian officials and those Albanians, Serbs and others whom the KLA regarded as "collaborators". Although the Serbian response was initially fairly restrained, by 1998 hundreds had died in escalating retaliations and 100,000 Kosovo Albanians were reported to have been made homeless.

The conflict culminated in the Kosovo War of 1999, during which over half of the province's Albanian population fled and several thousand people died. NATO seven weeks long air strikes eventually forced Milošević to back down. The subsequent Kumanovo Agreement saw Kosovo being handed over to a United Nations protectorate along with the total withdrawal of Yugoslav forces. In the aftermath of the war, the majority of Kosovo's Serb and Roma population fled persecution by the Albanian majority into Serbia proper, adding to the country's already large refugee population.

This time, though, Milošević was not lionised as a peacemaker. On 27 May 1999, he was indicted by the ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Kosovo. However, the possibility of his standing trial seemed remote at this point; despite the loss of Kosovo, he still appeared to retain popular support.

Downfall of Presidency

On 4 February, 1997, Milošević recognized the opposition victories in some local elections, having contested the results for 11 weeks.

Constitutionally limited to two terms as Serbian president, on 23 July, 1997, Milošević assumed the presidency of the Yugoslav Federation (currently Serbia and Montenegro).

Armed actions by Albanian separatist groups and Serbian police and military counter-action in Serbia's previously autonomous (and 90% Albanian) province of Kosovo culminated in escalating warfare in 1998, NATO air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between March and June 1999, and finally a full withdrawal of all Yugoslav security forces from the province.

During the Kosovo War he was indicted on 27 May, 1999, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Kosovo, and he was standing trial, up until his death, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which he asserted was illegal, having been established in contravention of the UN-charter.

The Yugoslav constitution called for a second election round with all but the two leading candidates eliminated, in the event that no candidate won more than 50% of the vote. Official results put Koštunica ahead of Milošević but at under 50%. Opinion polls suggested that supporters of most of the minor candidates would go to Milošević as would numbers of people who abstained in the first round but would oppose an opposition supported by the NATO powers.

Milošević's rejection of claims of a first-round opposition victory in new elections for the Federal presidency in September 2000 led to mass demonstrations in Belgrade on 5 October and the collapse of the regime's authority. Opposition-list leader Vojislav Koštunica finally took office as Yugoslav president on 6 October when Milošević publicly accepted defeat.

Some say he was forced to accept this reality when commanders of the army whom he had expected to support him had indicated that in this instance they would not. Ironically, Milošević lost his grip on power by losing in elections which he scheduled prematurely (before the end of his mandate) and which he did not even need to win in order to retain power which was centred in the parliaments which his party and its associates controlled. This downfall is known as the Bulldozer Revolution.

Following a warrant for his arrest by the Yugoslav authorities on charges of corruption and abuse of power, Milošević was forced to surrender to security forces on Saturday, 31 March, 2001 following an armed stand off at his fortified villa in Belgrade. On 28 June of the same year, Milošević was transferred by Yugoslav government officials from the gaol in Belgrade where he was being held to United Nations custody just inside Bosnian territory. He was then transported to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Constitution explicitly prohibited extradition of Yugoslav citizens and President Koštunica formally opposed the transfer which has been ordered by Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić.

Trial

Following Milošević's transfer, the original charges of war crimes in Kosovo were upgraded by adding charges of genocide in Bosnia and war crimes in Croatia. On 30 January, 2002, Milošević accused the war crimes tribunal of an "evil and hostile attack" against him. The trial began at The Hague on 12 February, 2002, with Milošević defending himself while refusing to recognize the legality of the court's jurisdiction.

His popularity among the Serbs and Yugoslavs again rose sharply once the trial had begun, as his supporters see it as a travesty of justice and violation of national sovereignty.

Milošević had a team in Belgrade that helped him, often sending him information available from the secret police files. Serbian insiders often supported Milošević's point of view, while Bosnian and Croatian witnesses have offered a lot of testimonies supporting the indictments.

The tribunal (in the unlikely event it continues following his death) will have to prove that he had command responsibility in Croatia and Bosnia, at least de facto, since formally as a President of Serbia at the time he was not in charge. His influence may have gone beyond his formal duties, but there is little to no record of this.

Milošević was not considered by some contemporaries to be a radical nationalist himself (although some of his followers were). Milošević's rhetoric did not make use of hate speech.

At one point during the Yugoslav wars, Serbia had rejected further cooperation with the Croatian Serbs (the Republic of Serbian Krajina), and also with the Bosnian Serbs (the Republika Srpska, in 1993, when Serbia closed the border over the Drina river).

After the Dayton Agreement in 1995, the Serbian nationalists (Vojislav Šešelj's radical party) became his sturdy opponents, up until 1998 when they joined his party in a coalition government.

The trial was a controversial issue and has featured many conflicting and strange testimonies, which are viewed by all sides of the argument to support theories of cover-ups and dishonesty by the opposing parties. For example:

• the statement by William Walker, the US former ambassador to El Salvador during its war, that he did not remember phoning several senior US officials to say that, at Racak, he had discovered a justification for a NATO war, but did not dispute that officials who said they had received his calls were telling the truth,

• the testimony by General Wesley Clark that Milošević had come to him privately at a conference to admit to prior knowledge of the Srebrenica massacre and in the same evidence that NATO had no links to the KLA,

• the statement by Rade Marković that a written statement he had made implicating Milošević had been extracted from him by ill-treatment legally amounting to torture by named NATO officers,

• the statement by Lord Owen (author of the Vance Owen Plan) that Milošević was the only leader who had consistently supported peace and that any form of racism was personally "anathema" to him.

The prosecution took two years to present its case in the first part of the trial, where they covered the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Throughout the two-year period, the trial was being closely followed by the publics of the involved former Yugoslav republics as it covered various notable events from the war and included several high-profile witnesses.

Milošević got increasingly ill during this time (high blood pressure and severe flu), which caused intermissions and prolongued the trial by at least six months. In early 2004, when he finally appeared in court in order to start presenting his defense (announcing over 1,200 witnesses), the two ICTY judges decided to appoint him two defense lawyers in accordance with the medical opinions of the resident cardiologists. This action was opposed by Milošević himself and the pair of British lawyers appointed to him.

In October 2004, the trial was resumed after being suspended for a month to allow counsel Steven Kay, who complained Milošević was not cooperating, to prepare the defense. Steven Kay has since asked to be allowed to resign from his court appointed position, complaining that of the 1200 witnesses he has only been able to get five to testify. Many of the other witnesses refused to testify in protest of ICTYs decision not to permit Milošević to defend himself.

In November 2004, former Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov became the first high profile witness to testify for the defence.

It was considered likely that, if allowed to present his case, Milošević would attempt to establish that NATO's attack on Yugoslavia was aggressive, thus being a war crime under international law and that, while supporting the KLA, were aware that they had practiced and intended to continue practicing genocide, which is a crime against humanity. If a prima facie case for either claim were established, the ICTY would be legally obliged under its terms of reference to prepare an indictment against the leaders of most of the NATO countries, even though the Prosecutor already concluded an "inquiry" against the NATO leaders.

Supporters of Milošević

There are some writers and journalists who have argued that the criminality of Milošević's actions during the Bosnian War have been exaggerated to provide justification for the military intervention. It is fair to say, though, that their views are fairly marginal and not supported by the majority of academic historians of the Yugoslav conflicts.

Political scientist Michael Parenti has made the case that Milošević, and the actions of the Serbs more broadly, were systematically exaggerated by the mainstream U.S. media during the period of NATO's bombing (see Parenti's book "To Kill a Nation" for more details).

Additionally, Paris based journalist Diana Johnstone made the case in her book Fool's Crusade that Milošević's actions were marginal at best, and no worse than the crimes of the Croats or the Bosnian Muslims, also stating the massacre of Srebrenica has been exaggerated. Johnstone though, has been claimed to be a long-standing friend of Mirjana Marković, Milošević's wife.

Political scientist Edward Herman (former co-author with Noam Chomsky) publicly endorsed Johnstone's findings in his review of Fool's Crusade in the Monthly Review after the book's publication (see ]).

Noam Chomsky himself has not commented on the accuracy of Johnstone's claims although he has indicated that he regretted not supporting her book strongly enough upon publication.

This comment was then allegedly distorted by journalist Emma Brockes in an interview with Chomsky in The Guardian on 31 October, 2005, to make it appear as though Chomsky himself was denying the massacre at Srebrenica. Noam Chomsky in response, issued an open letter to the The Guardian in which he accused Brockes and the editors of fabrication (see ]). The Guardian later apologized to Chomsky and retracted the article in a short letter.

Diana Johnstone later commented on The Guardian piece in Alexander Cockburn's journal CounterPunch (]), Chomsky does not agree with Johnstone's views on Milošević, the Serbs, or Srebrenica in particular, but has been critical of NATO's intervention and has indicated that the campaign was carried out with prior knowledge that the bombing would escalate the atrocities. His views on that topic can be found in his book The New Military Humanism.

University of Pennsylvania Professor Francisco Gil-White's (see]) investigative journalism on The Emperor's New Clothes (]) and Historical and Investigative Research (]) reveal documentation that, he believes, supports the claims that the criminality of Milošević's actions as President of Yugoslavia were exaggerated, if not wholly fabricated.

Death of Milošević

This section documents a current event

Declaration of death

Milošević was found dead in his cell on March 11, 2006 in the UN war crimes tribunal's detention centre at The Hague. An official in the chief prosecutor's office said that he had been found at about 10 a.m. Saturday and had apparently been dead for several hours (see ]). His trial had been due to resume on 14 March with testimony from the former president of Montenegro, Momir Bulatović. A request for the autopsy in the presence of a Serbian pathologist was granted (see ]), and his body was transported to the Dutch Forensic Institute.

Discussion of causes

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia declared that Milošević had been suffering from heart problems and high blood pressure.

The tribunal had recently denied his request for travel to Russia for specialist medical treatment. Milošević planned to appeal against this decision, saying that his condition was worsening.

Preliminary results of the autopsy, held in the Netherlands, show that he died of myocardial infarction, the scientific term for a heart attack. The tribunal has warned, however, that it is currently impossible to dismiss poisoning as a toxicological report has yet to be completed.

Milošević's lawyer, Zdenko Tomanović, told reporters that his client had feared he was being poisoned and said he had made a formal request for the autopsy to take place in Moscow. The tribunal rejected the request, saying a pathologist from Serbia would attend the autopsy. As the lawyer said "I demanded protection for Slobodan Milošević over his claims that he was being poisoned. I still haven't received any reply and that's all I have to say at this time". According to Russian sources, experts failed to identify the cause of Milošević's death and required the autopsy.

On 1 September, 2005 Milošević mentioned in court (see ]) that there had recently been "a big to-do" when he and another prisoner had swapped meals, even though "the food was apparently exactly the same", causing him to be suspicious, and in October 2004, Pravda.ru suggested (see ]) that wrong medications had been administered to Milošević deliberately. Shortly before death, he complained (see]) about wrong medical treatment to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. A legal advisor to Milošević told international media that he has a medical report from January 2006.

According to this report, Milošević's blood contained drugs that neutralize the prescribed medicines for heart condition and high blood pressure. These drugs are normally used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis.

According to CBS News (see ]), traces of a drug used to treat leprosy and tuberculosis were found in a blood sample taken in recent months from former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a Dutch news report said, citing an unidentified "adviser" to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Reports of the presence of these drugs in Milošević's system raised concerns about a possibility of wrongful death in this case, however, these claims appear to be based on the same undisclosed source (see ]).

BBC report from March 13 confirms earlier information that Milosevic was given wrong drugs. Drugs found in the body of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic may have neutralised treatment for his heart conditions, a toxicologist says. Full test results are awaited but the comments of Dutch expert Donald Uges raised questions over what caused Mr Milosevic's death from a heart attack. Mr Milosevic wrote a letter to Russia alleging he was being poisoned at The Hague war crimes tribunal. The tribunal says Mr Milosevic received competent medical supervision.

On 13 March, 2006, BBC News reported that Milošević had suffered a heart attack according to a preliminary autopsy.

Reaction

According to (]) the chief U.N. prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, "the death of Slobodan Milošević deprived victims of justice and made it more urgent to catch and extradite other Balkan leaders implicated in atrocities... You have the choice between normal, natural death and suicide". Del Ponte concluded that suicide could not be ruled out and declined to comment on speculation that Milošević may have been poisoned.

In an interview with the Rome newspaper, La Repubblica (see ]), del Ponte said she was enraged by the death, only months before the verdict was due in his four-year-old trial. "I am furious," she said in the interview. "In an instant everything was lost ... he death of Milosevic represents for me a total defeat".

At a news conference in The Hague, where the tribunal is based, Del Ponte said on Sunday morning she could not rule out suicide. But first results from an autopsy released later in the day indicated he had died from a heart attack. She noted that Milosevic's death was the second within a week at the tribunal's detention centre after the suicide of former rebel Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic.

According to Peter Beaumont (see ]). from The Observer, Milošević's death is a crushing blow to the tribunal and to those who wanted to establish an authoritative historical record of the Balkan wars. In a statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry implicitly criticized Milošević's's captors, saying: "Unfortunately, despite our guarantees, the tribunal did not agree to provide Milošević the possibility of treatment in Russia".

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev told Ekho Moskvy radio that the decision not to allow Milošević to travel to Russia was "somewhat inhuman". "Milošević did not die in The Hague, he was killed in The Hague," said Ivica Dačić, a senior official in Milosevic's Socialist Party.

References

1. ^ ICTY (2001). "Initial indicement against Milošević on crimes in Croatia".
2. ICTY (2001). "Initial indicement against Milošević on crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina".
3. news.com.au (2006). "Balkans 'butcher' found dead".

Further reading

• Noam Chomsky. "A New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo."
• Ivo Dowder & Michael O'Hanlon, "Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo"
• Misha Glenny, "The Fall of Yugoslavia"
• Gow, James, "The Serbian Project and its Adversaries: A Strategy of War Crimes"
• Diana Johnstone, "Fool's Crusade"
• Adam Lebor, "Milosevic: A Biography"
• Michael Parenti, "To Kill A Nation: NATO's Attack on Yugoslavia"
• Laura Silber, "Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation"

External links

• CNN on Milosevic
• PBS Channel13 coverage
• CNN's InDepth Analysis
• bbc on Milosevic
• Srebrenica genocide blogger
• BBC News - Have Your Say
• Video Archives of ICTY Trial of Miloŝević
• Carla del Ponte's Pound of Serbian Flesh
• Miloŝevic trial 2001-2004
• Milosevic trial news and resources, JURIST
• Court transcripts and other documentation on the trial of Slobodan Milošević
• "The Other Side of the Story" Dusan Vilic and Bosko Todorovic
• Meltdown at the Milosevic Trial: A Much Delayed Rush to Judgment, JURIST
• To Kill A Nation - The Attack on Yugoslavia
• BBC News Obituary
• The Milosevic Trial Legacy: If Not Outcome, Hope, JURIST
• Bildt Comments: Slobodan Milosevic
• Historian on Serbia Tim Judah's comments
• Photos Slobodan Milošević for The Washington Post
• Chronology of Milosevic's career

v t e Presidents of Serbia (List)
Presidents of People's Assembly of PR/SR Serbia (1945–1974) (within FPR/SFR Yugoslavia)	Siniša Stanković Aćim Grulović Isa Jovanović Petar Stambolić Jovan Veselinov Dušan Petrović Šane Miloš Minić Dragoslav Marković Živan Vasiljević
Presidents of Presidency of SR Serbia (1974–1992) (within SFR Yugoslavia)	Dragoslav Marković Dobrivoje Vidić Nikola Ljubičić Dušan Čkrebić Ivan Stambolić Petar Gračanin Slobodan Milošević
Presidents of the Republic of Serbia (1992–2006) (within FR Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro)	Slobodan Milošević Milan Milutinović Boris Tadić
Presidents of the Republic of Serbia (since 2006)	Boris Tadić Slavica Đukić Dejanović* Tomislav Nikolić Aleksandar Vučić

v t e Presidents of Serbia and Montenegro
Dobrica Ćosić Miloš Radulović Zoran Lilić Srđa Božović Slobodan Milošević Vojislav Koštunica Svetozar Marović
acting

• 1941 births
• 2006 deaths
• Serbian politicians
• Yugoslav politicians
• War criminals