The Yugoslav Wars & Slobodan Milošević — Complicated Man

Among the most important and controversial political figures in Balkan history was Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006). Milošević was a key player throughout the events causing the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) and its accompanying bloody clashes in the 1990s as President of Serbia (1989–1997) and later, from 1997 until his ousting in October 2000, as President of the newly reformed Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. His leadership, decisions and legacy are superdebated even today (some consider him as one of the main architects of ethnic conflict and nationalism, while others see him as savior of Serbia against Western intervention).

During the course of the Yugoslav Wars he was charged with war crimes which included genocide and became the first sitting head of state to be called before an International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Although he died in 2006 before a verdict could be reached during his trial, the image and influence of his political legacy are still felt across the Balkans today.

Early Life and Political Rise

Slobodan Milošević (born 20 August 1941) was born in the town of Požarevac, Kingdom of Yugoslavia during World War II. Growing up in a working-class family, he studied law as a school boy. He studied law at the University of Belgrade and upon completing his studies became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) in the early 1960s.

Milošević rose to political prominence in the apparatus of Yugoslavia’s Communist structure, established under Josip Broz Tito after World War II. The survival of the multi-ethnic federation, which included Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians as well as other nationalities during post-war era largely depended on Tito's leadership. Tito wanted to keep the country's diverse ethnic groups together while promoting a brand of socialism free from Soviet or Western influence.

He initially held a number of state and party positions, but it was within the Serbian matrix of the Communist Party that he consolidated his career and ascended into its hierarchy. By the 1980s, with financial and political difficulties shaking Yugoslavia at its core, Milošević was able to pose as a champion of the Serbian nation. He became President of the Communist Party of Serbia in 1987 and a year later was made President of Serbia — in 1989.

His rise was concurrent with high nationalism in Serbia, especially within the context of Belgrade's view towards weakening influence among other nations over a unified Yugoslavia. With the country coming apart at the seams, Milošević tapped into nationalist feelings and portrayed himself as the savior of Serbs across what was then a more expansive Yugoslavia. This was especially noticeable in Kosovo, where the Serbian government's authority had been threatened by ethnic Albanians. Milošević's nationalist policies towards Kosovo were a major factor in boosting his standing among Serbs, but also cretaed the conditions for the crisis which was to follow.

Nationalism and the Break Up of Yugoslavia

Various factors played a role in the breakup of Yugoslavia during the early 1990s — economic crisis, ethnic tensions exacerbated by nationalist sentiments unleashed as Communist control weakened following Tito's death in 1980. Finally, Milošević’s increasingly nationalistic rhetoric to bring back the power of the Serbs in Yugoslavia directly jeopardized the autonomy of other republics, especially those wanting greater independence, such as Croatia and Slovenia.

Slovenia and Croatia both proclaimed independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Serbia under Milošević was opposed to these moves, claiming they infringed on the rights of Serbs in those republics. This resulted in the Ten-Day War for Slovenia and the beginning of war with Croatian-Serbian forces clashing (alongside the Croat citizens). The conflicts rapidly turned into bloodbaths as genocide was being committed by both sides.

As Serbia emboldened to lay claim to lands populated by ethnic Serbs, Milošević’s responsibility in these conflicts became only more conspicuous. When the war reached Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, Milošević was alleged to have instigated conflict between Serbs on the one side, and Croats and Bosniaks (Muslims) on the other. The Bosnian War would become a nightmare story in the Yugoslav Wars, encompassing mass slaughter, ethnic cleansing and the Srebrenica massacre in which thousands of Bosniak men and boys were executed by Bosnian Serb troops.

Milošević, who himself little more than a decade earlier had been the head of Serbia’s military and paramilitary operations, oversaw this coordination. The Serbian Army, and their paramilitary troops helped commit some of the worst war crimes during the siege of Sarajevo between 1992-96. That was the time when Serbian forces besieged the Bosnian capital, bombarding civilian places and blocking food and medical aid.

Milosevic's Role in War Crimes and Genocide

More than just words, Slobodan Milošević was charged with running governmental plans of a systematic ethnic cleansing campaign that had the purpose of evicting non-Serb peoples from Serbian-held areas during the Yugoslav Wars. He was a key figure in the prosecution of war crimes during the Yugoslav Wars due to his backing for Bosnian Serbs as well as the role of the Army of Republika Srpska under Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić.

Kosovo War: In 1999, we saw dissemination of widespread violence against Kosovo Albanians by Milošević's forces. This was followed by the increasing resistance of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against Serbian rule over the region. In retaliation for the killings, Milošević resorted to massive military offensives in Kosovo that drove hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from their homes. NATO's decision to launch a military air campaign against Serbia in March 1999 had come after the mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Albanians from Kosovo and reports of mass executions and other atrocities. The conflict was concluded with the retreat of Serbian troops from Kosovo, and the establishment of an UN-run international protectorate over the province.

The Trial and Final Years

Milošević was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague after he fell following a popular uprising against his rule in Serbia in 2001. For his participation in the Yugoslav Wars he faced charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The allegations he faced during his trial, which began in 2002 was amongst the most serious ever made in the annals of international law.

At the ICTY Milošević, who always maintained his innocence, acted as his own lawyer, turning it into an exhibition that stretched on for years. HIS HELLOTMINE DEFENCE — Despite his making contact with security guards who wanted to expel him, he tried in a ligation that was controversial to paint himself as a protector of Serb interests and accused the West of meddling in Yugoslavia's internal affairs; Survivors of the Srebrenica massacre testified against him during his trial, which was cut short in 2006 when Milošević died from a heart attack before a verdict could be delivered. There was no definitive answer to the many questions that remained regarding his death, and it also resulted in one of the most significant war crimes trials not concluding satisfactorily.

Legacy and Controversy

The legacy of Slobodan Milošević remains one that divides to the core. Some see him as a nationalist leader who fought to keep the Serbian people from falling apart and outside meddling. For many others, however, he is merely a war criminal who caused the death of tens of thousands and displaced millions while carving a multi-ethnic state to pieces.

Milošević's memory is complicated in Serbia. To some he remains a hero for defying the West and championing the Serbian cause, to others a monster who waged wars and profited from fuelling ethnic divisions. But in the wider region, Milošević is often seen as one of the main architects of the bloodshed and ethnic hatred that marked the Yugoslav Wars.

The former Yugoslavia has made some headway towards reconciliation in the decades since his death, but the scars of the wars run deep. The nations spawned from the post-Yugoslav carcass—Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and others—still struggle with history (what shame on them) as does a richly deserving figure like Milošević. Milošević spent his life manipulating ethnic divisions, leading the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia and later defending himself at a war crimes trial. What he did, especially during the Yugoslav Wars, was ruinous and left scars that will likely never heal among the peoples of the Balkans. His trial, of course, never achieved anything like a definitive conclusion; but the history of his rise to power and his complicity in war crimes — and his final arrest/trial/overthrow of justice — are all vital for understanding both the tragedy that was the events of the 1990s and why so many parts of this region are still held back by political inertia.