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Slobodan Miloševic (born 1941 in Pozarevac, Serbia) is the former president of Serbia. During the Kosovo War he was indicted of war crimes, and he is currently under trial at International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Miloševic emerged in April 1987 as the leading force in the revival of Serbian nationalism, replacing Ivan Stambolic as party leader in the Serbian section of the ruling League of Communists of Yugoslavia in September.
He was elected president of Serbia by the national assembly in May 1989, and presided over the transformation of the League of Communists of Serbia into the Socialist Party of Serbia (July 1990) and the adoption of a new Serbian constitution (September 1990) providing for a direct election of a president with increased powers. Miloševic won direct election as president of Serbia in December 1990 and December 1992.
Miloševic's rise to power coincided with the growth of nationalism among all of Yugoslavia's republics following the collapse of communist governments throughout eastern Europe. In June 1991 Slovenia and Croatia seceded from the federation, followed by the republics of Macedonia (subsequently styled the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) in September 1991 and Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 1992. The presence of large Serb minorities in Croatia (540,000) and Bosnia (1.6 million) led to wars in each, in which Serb secessionists seeking union with Serbia proper were supported by the Yugoslav government and army.
In 1995 the Dayton Agreement brought an end to Bosnian civil war, and Miloševic was credited in the West as one of the pillars of Balkan peace. The government of president Clinton supported his rule during this period, until the beginning of the uprising in Kosovo and start of Albanian terrorist actions and a consequent brutal Serbian crackdown in 1998. In the winter of 1996, after a fraud in local elections, there were student demonstrations which lasted 3 months, filling the streets of Belgrade daily, and protesting Miloševic rule. But the West failed to support Serbian people, opting for Miloševic instead, and he menaged to stay in power. His image was badly damaged though, and despite substantial rise in popularity after the NATO bombing in 1999, this lead to his eventual downfall.
Constitutionally limited to two terms as Serbian president, in July 1997 Miloševic assumed the presidency of the Yugoslav Federation, now reduced to Serbia and her smaller neighbour Montenegro. Armed actions by Albanian separatist groups and Serbian military counter-action in Serbia's autonomous (and mostly Albanian-populated) province of Kosovo culminated in escalating warfare in 1998, NATO air strikes against Serbia and her armed forces in March-June 1999, and Serbia's subsequent military withdrawal from the province.
Miloševic'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 October 5 and the collapse of the regime's authority. Opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica took office as Yugoslav president on October 6.
Arrested on April 1, 2001 on charges of abuse of power and corruption, Miloševic was handed over by the Serbian government on June 28 to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The transfer was illegal under Yugoslav law at the time, and president Kostunica was opposed to it. After his transfer, original charges of war crimes in Kosovo were upgraded by adding charges of genocide in Bosnia and war crimes in Croatia. The trial began at The Hague on February 12, 2002 with Miloševic defending himself though refusing to recognise the court's jurisdiction. Some observers found his popularity among Serbs rising sharply since the beginning of the trial, with even those who were always opposing him admitting he makes his case. Most people who have observed the trial say it is a travesty of justice, and that it appears designed to justify NATO bombing actions and sponsorship of Albanian terrorist groups during the 1990's. The trial in The Hague does not examine the possible issue of crimes committed by NATO during the war.
In private, Miloševic is patriarchal and conservative, devoted to his family and wife, who was his high-school sweetheart. His personality is marked by stubbornness, of which he is proud, rigid adherence to personal moral beliefs, and belongs to obsessive-compulsive personality type. Modest and unassumig during his years in power, he opposed often to appearing on state TV, and his presence in media was consequently rare and discrete. His most devoted followers are older people, pensioners who spent most of their lives in an other era, whose moral code Miloševic followed flawlessly. His stubbornness and unwillingness to compromise and betray his principles is at least partly to be credited for political problems and wars which marked his years in power. His confident defense in the trial has also to do with this stubborn personality, as it appears that he firmly believes in the truthfulness of his defense, and the conspiracy of the New World Order. In politics, he has always been a strict legalist, taking great care that all his decisions are covered by law. His influence went beyond his formal duties, but there is little to no record of this, as he always preferred to deal with his subordinates confidentialy and in person. Unlike Croatian president Franjo Tudjman who often made blunders like saying how happy he is that his wife is neither Serbian nor Jewish (for which he appologized to Jews, but not to Serbs), Miloševic never said anything which could be classified as hate speach, and the fear of him in former Yugoslavia during the rise of Serbian nationalism was more a reaction to the actions of his followers, than to any of his explicitly expressed views. He is not considered to a be nationalist himself, and had a bitter dispute with Bosnian Serb government from 1993 to 1995 - during this period the boundary on the Drina river, separating Bosnia from Serbia, was closed, and support for Bosnian Serbs was severely restricted. After Dayton Agreement in 1995 Serbian nationalists become his sturdy opponents, up until 1998. The trial in The Hague markes a new period in his career and presents everyone interested with an unprecedented opportunity to get an insight into Miloševic, as an archive of video footage from the trial is available online. While opinions about Miloševic and his trial are far from being unanimous, people at least agree that the proceedings have plenty of bizare and amusing moments.