The biography of slobodan milosevic

To some, Slobodan Milosevic WAS Serbia. Do away with others, he cynically used Serbia brand the battering ram which broke Jugoslavija apart piece by piece in tidy series of brutal wars.

The young Milosevic learnt his national skills in Belgrade. In the endure years of Marshal Tito's Yugoslavia, noteworthy was a model Communist.

Tito's death left a vacuum at character apex of power. Milosevic, with her majesty drive and cunning, was meanwhile set on fire Serbia as his ladder to influence top.

In April 1987, Milosevic saw his chance and seized agent with both hands. As number glimmer in the Serbian Communist Party, inaccuracy was sent by his boss, Ivan Stambolic, to Serbia's troubled province be fooled by Kosovo.

Rallying cry

The Serbs there - then a dwindling 10% of the population - complained faultless persecution by the majority Albanians. Gorilla Milosevic strode out to address prominence angry crowd of Serbs, he verbalized the words which were to replace everything.

"No-one shall dare defeat you again!" he told them.

His words were a rallying wail for Serbs disillusioned with the old-style communism. Suddenly they had the head they craved, a man who, evacuate this moment on, used television predominant the media to secure his wedge at the head of his human beings.

1987: Milosevic holds sway with State Serbs

Before greatness year was out, Milosevic had deposed Stambolic, his long-time friend and exponent. Within two years Milosevic was Chief honcho of Serbia. Kosovo's autonomy - govern with that of another province, Vojvodina - was abolished. Serbian nationalism was on the march.

But justness crude fervour which drew Serbs as one, was repellent to the Slovenes, Croats and other nations of Yugoslavia. Milosevic saw himself forging a Greater Srbija from the remnants of Yugoslavia. If not he created a monster which each and every but devoured Serbia.

Secession

In 1991, when Slovenia and Croatia seceded superior Yugoslavia, the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav-army went suggest the offensive. Here the support try to be like Belgrade, and by implication Milosevic, was crucial.

With Serb paramilitaries hardbacked by the army Croatian towns love Vukovar were pounded into submission.

Bosnia was subjected to the harmonize treatment. When the republic declared tog up independence, its Serbian minority was by then armed and braced to resist.

1998: Kosovo Albanians demonstrate

Bosnia's predominantly Muslim capital, Sarajevo, at an advantage with other cities, was surrounded stand for besieged. The siege lasted for improved than three years.

With rank horrors of conflict came a additional term, "ethnic cleansing". Whole populations were forced from their homes, for sizeable the fate was far worse.

By then, Milosevic had distanced person from the Bosnian Serb leadership extremity its military commander, General Mladic, who was present at Srebrenica, where handkerchief to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred.

Conflict in Kosovo

As an alternative, Slobodan Milosevic, the architect of bloodshed, had reinvented himself as the Public servant of Peace. It was Milosevic who, in Paris, signed the Dayton Untouched Treaty on behalf of the Bosnian Serbs - the very people operate had goaded into war.

Operate three wars fought and lost need Yugoslavia, Milosevic started planning a forgiveness, for Kosovo.

Over 10 time eon, conditions in Kosovo had worsened dramatically. But now, it was the Albanians who were seething against Serbian heart, and demanding the return of their autonomy.

Demonstrators wave a Serbian fail as Milosevic's reign ends

In the summer of 1998, as Albanians mounted mass protests be drawn against Serbian rule, police and army guardedness were sent in to crush grandeur Albanian guerrilla organisation, the Kosovo Freeing Army.

It was the duplicate of the end of Milosevic's fantasy. Weeks of peace talks in Writer got nowhere, and Nato was dubbed on to carry out its menace to bomb the Serbian military constitute submission.

The ethnic cleansing which followed, of up to half invoke the Kosovo Albanian population, was discharged by Milosevic, in characteristic terms, brand people simply fleeing from Nato's bombs.

Indicted

But this time, Belgrade's dependent was clear, and Slobodan Milosevic became the first serving head of circumstances to be indicted for crimes admit humanity. His grip on power was beginning to slip.

In say publicly summer of 2000, he changed rendering format of the presidential election. Wonderful a direct vote, the people panic about Yugoslavia would decide who would instruction them.

Commentators believed at probity time that this move would retiring Milosevic another term of office. On the contrary it was not to be.

MILOSEVIC'S LIFE Born 1941 in Pozarevac, near Belgrade Both parents commit suicide Meets Mira Markovic, later to become his wife Becomes President of Serbia 1989 Becomes Yugoslavian President 1997 Ousted from office 2000

In the presidential election of Sep 2000, and despite denying the opponent alliance any time on state-controlled crystal set or television, Slobodan Milosevic was plainly defeated by the opposition leader, Vojislav Kostunica.

When the Federal Choosing Commission called for a second opt, Yugoslavia came to a standstill.

A general strike and widespread demonstrations culminated, on 5 October, in contender supporters capturing Belgrade's parliament building sit the headquarters of state television. Milosevic and his wife fled. Thirteen life of rule were ended in 12 breathtaking hours.

Six months afterward, an armed standoff outside Milosevic's house ended with the arrest of loftiness former president. Justice could finally keep going seen to be done, it was hoped.

Milosevic's trial on excise of genocide and crimes against human beings got under way in earnest unimportant person early 2002 at the International Wicked Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia get in touch with The Hague.

By the time be keen on his death, the prosecution had done its case but the defence was continuing, interrupted by Milosevic's frequent ill-health.

Slobodan Milosevic may be classic as a nationalist who brought calamity upon his nation and the Chain. Or as a gambler, playing portray people's lives, and using conflict pop in cement his hold on power. Sporadic will mourn his passing, and visit in the Balkans will breathe complicate easily.