Miloševic, Slobodan

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Serbian communist-nationalist politician; president of Serbia 1989–97, and president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1997–2000. Leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia from 1986, he fanned Serbian nationalist sentiment that helped provoke the break-up of Yugoslavia and led to civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992–94 between Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims. As president of Yugoslavia, Miloševic faced international condemnation for the brutal treatment of ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces in Kosovo, an autonomous province within Serbia. In March 1999, NATO began a bombing campaign in an attempt to force the Yugoslav government to end the persecution, and in June 1999 Miloševic accepted NATO's peace agreement. He was defeated in presidential elections in 2000 by Vojislav Koštunica. In April 2001 he was extradited to the United Nations (UN) International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. His trial began in 2002 but he died before it concluded.

During the 1991–92 civil war in Yugoslavia, Miloševic wielded considerable influence over the Serb-dominated Yugoslav federal army, and he defied international sanctions and continued to back Serbian militias in Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992–94. From 1994, as the war turned against the Bosnian Serbs, he distanced himself from the more extreme nationalists, to preserve his position. He helped negotiate the Dayton peace accord in 1995, which led to the lifting of international sanctions against Serbia but weakened his popular support within Serbia. After becoming president of Yugoslavia in 1997, he ordered the armed repression of Albanian separatists in Kosovo in 1998, leading to fierce fighting and reports of massacres of Kosovo Albanians. In February 1999 Miloševic rejected a Western-sponsored peace plan which had been accepted by the separatists, and NATO responded with a bombing campaign against Serbia. Miloševic intensified ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, causing a massive refugee crisis as around 800,000 Kosovo Albanians were forced to flee their homes.

The small stars stand for the original provinces of Congo at independence in 1960. The single gold star was said to represent the light of civilization. Effective date: 17 May 1997. >>