Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević (20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 until his overthrow in 2000. Milošević played a major role in the Yugoslav Wars and became the first sitting head of state charged with war crimes.

Born in Požarevac, he studied law at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law during which he joined the League of Socialist Youth of Yugoslavia. From the 1960s, he was advisor to the mayor of Belgrade, and in the 1970s he was a chairman of large companies as the protégé of Serbian leader Ivan Stambolić. Milošević was a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s; he came to power in 1987 after he ousted opponents, including Stambolić. He was elected president of the 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. He led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until his death. Following the 1990 general elections, Milošević enacted dominant-party rule while his party retained control over economic resources of the state. During his presidency, 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 connected to the Bosnian War, Croatian War of Independence and Kosovo War. After resigning from the Yugoslav presidency in 2000 amidst demonstrations against the disputed presidential election, Milošević was arrested by Yugoslav federal authorities in 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, conducting his own defence. He died of a heart attack in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before the trial could conclude. The Tribunal denied responsibility for his death stating he had refused to take prescribed medicines for his cardiac ailments and medicated himself instead. After his death, the ICTY and International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals found he was a part of a joint criminal enterprise that used violence such as ethnic cleansing to remove Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians from parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded separately there was no evidence linking him to genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian War, but found Milošević had violated the Genocide Convention by failing to prevent genocide from occurring and to hold those involved accountable.

Observers have described Milošević's political behavior as populist, eclectic, and opportunist. Milošević's rule has been described as authoritarian or autocratic, as well as kleptocratic, with accusations of electoral fraud, assassinations, suppression of press freedom, and police brutality.