Milosevic goes on trial for war crimes
On this day in 2002 former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial at The Hague Netherlands on charges of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia Croatia and Kosovo.Milosevic served as his own attorney for much of the prolonged trial which ended without a verdict when the so-called Butcher of the Balkans was found dead at age 64 from an apparent heart attack in his prison cell on March 11 2006.Yugoslavia consisting of Croatia Montenegro Slovenia Serbia Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia became a federal republic headed by Communist leader Marshal Tito on January 31 1946.Tito died in May 1980 and Yugoslavia along with communism crumbled over the next decade.Milosevic born August 20 1941 joined the Communist Party at age 18 he became president of Serbia in 1989.
On June 25 1991 Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia and Milosevic sent tanks to the Slovenian border sparking a brief war that ended in Slovenias secession.In Croatia fighting broke out between Croats and ethnic Serbs and Serbia sent weapons and medical supplies to the Serbian rebels in Croatia.Croatian forces clashed with the Serb-led Yugoslav army troops and their Serb supporters.
An estimated 10000 people were killed and hundreds of Croatian towns were destroyed before a U.N.cease-fire was established in January 1992.In March Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence and Milosevic funded the subsequent Bosnian Serb rebellion starting a war that killed an estimated 200000 people before a U.S.-brokered peace agreement was reached at Dayton Ohio in 1995.In Kosovo a formerly autonomous province of Serbia liberation forces clashed with Serbs and the Yugoslav army was sent in.
Amidst reports that Milosevic had launched an ethnic cleansing campaign against Kosovos ethnic Albanians NATO forces launched air strikes against Yugoslavia in 1999.Ineligible to run for a third term as Serbian president Milosevic had made himself president of Yugoslavia in 1997.After losing the presidential election in September 2000 he refused to accept defeat until mass protests forced him to resign the following month.He was charged with corruption and abuse of power and finally surrendered to Serbian authorities on April 1 2001 after a 26-hour standoff.
That June he was extradited to the Netherlands and indicted by a United Nations war crimes tribunal.Milosevic died in his cell of a heart attack before his trial could be completed.In February 2003 Serbia and Montenegro became a commonwealth and officially dropped the name Yugoslavia.In June 2006 the two countries declared their independence from each other.
