Introduction
Slobodan Milosevic was the President of Yugoslavia from 1997 till 2000. Previous to this, he headed the republic of Serbia (1989 – 1997). He is regarded as the key figure of the conflicts, which happened after Yugoslavia disintegration in the beginning of 1990s. Most historians and researchers consider him as the main person responsible for these events; the others consider him as a victim of the arbitrariness by the USA and NATO. The attitude to him in Yugoslavia is extremely varied.
Early life and Career
Slobodan Milosevic was born in Pozarevec (Serbian Montenegro) Yugoslavia, when Yugoslavia was occupied by the Axis powers (August the 20th, 1941). It is known that his parents divorced soon after his birth, and later destiny of Slobodan and his parents is unclear until their death. Both committed suicide (father Svetozar Milosevic in 1962; mother Stanislava Milosevic in 1974).
Slobodan graduated the Law Belgrade University, where he broadly shared his communistic views, and headed the ideology committee of the communist party’s student branch. There, in university he got acquainted with Ivan Stambolić; his uncle was the prime minister of Serbia at that time. Originally, this event became the first step in Milosevic’s career advancement, as Stambolić assisted his rise through the Communist hierarchy.
After graduating from the university in 1960 Milosevic became the economic advisor of the Mayor in Belgrade. He stayed the economic advisor up to 1968, when he got the job in Tehnogas Company. Stambolić was also working in this company, and Slobodan got the place of chairman in 1973. Continuing friendship with Stambolić helped him to become the head of Beobanka – one of the largest banks in Yugoslavia. This had played a great role in his life, as during his business trips to New York and Paris he studied English and French languages.
In April 1984 Milosevic replaced Stambolić being elected as the president of the Belgrade City Committee of the League of Communists. Stambolić, in his turn, got the post of the head of the Serbian Communist Party.
After he had become the communists’ leader, Milosevic started opposing any nationalistic movements. Thus, he prevented the publication of Serbian historian Slobodan Jovanović who was a nationalist politician. Milosevic supported the introduction of Marxism as a school subject and claimed that Yugoslavian youth became the members of the communistic party. His political activity was rather brave and notorious; however, he can not be compared with Hitler or some other tyrant, as he did not claim for ethnic cleansing, and he did not support the ideas of national separatism and suppressed any separatist moods. On the one hand, these actions may seem cruel, however, taking into account the cold war, any separation could be used by two confronting camps, and turn into another “Vietnam”. Milosevic could have realized it, and attempted to prevent any confrontation by suppressing the very heart of separatism. When he became the leader of the Serbian political system in 1987, his position could be regarded as nationalistic, and some of his actions confirmed this, on the other hand, internationalism and socialism were an integral part of his policy. When he was addressing Serbian people in Kosovo, he claimed that no one has the right to beat people only for the reason of being different. This happened in the growing conflict between Serbians and Albanians – the two people who pretended for living in Kosovo. Proclamation of this speech meant the protest against the communistic party, as police were controlled by it, and policemen often beat Serbians. He violated the principle of a communistic party, saying that any leader should not side with any ethnic group (the local administration was dominated by ethnic Albanians, which the Kosovo Serbs resented).
Presidency
The presidential campaign of Milosevic was supported by Stambolić as any other his career advancement. Dragisa Pavlović, a Stambolić associate and Milosevic’s liberal successor, extremely opposed the policies that Milosevic held towards Kosovan Serbs. This was the reason for great opposition from the side of Milosevic, and he proclaimed that Pavlovic is the son and supporter of Albanian radicals and extremists. Stambolić advised him not to do this, however, Slobodan decided to leas his politics, and started preparing the ground for removing Stambolić’s supporters with his people. Stambolić had to resign under powerful pressure. Later, the death of Stambolić in 2003 was attributed to Milosevic as the contract murder.
The following two years after the elections (1988 – 1989) Milosevic devoted himself to solving the problems with Kosovo. His followers arranged public protests, which were called the “anti-bureaucratic revolution”, which became one of the key reasons for elected leadership removing in Vojvodina (6 October 1988), Montenegro (10 January 1989), and finally Kosovo itself (in February-March 1989). The leader of Kosovan Albanians was arrested, and the strike by Kosovan miners was suppressed by Serbian Police. 32 people became the victims of police cruelty.
Conflict
In 1989 Milosevic initiated the acceptance of the amendments for the Serbian constitution. These amendments restricted the autonomy of Kosovo, which had the status of republic according to the constitution of 1974. Formally, Kosovan representatives stayed in collective presidium and Serbian parliament (Skupschina). The subsidies for the maintenance of Albanian mass media were essentially decreased. The new regulation of Albanian language study and education was accepted in 1990.
After the failure and total collapse of the Yugoslavia league, Milosevic was re-elected as a president of the Serbian Republic in the elections of December 1990 and December 1992. In the parliamentary elections in December 1990, the socialist party that Milosevic headed, won 80,5% of the votes. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo boycotted these elections. It is argued that the elections were not free and fair, however, Milosevic controlled the key part of the mass media, as well as the election system itself. Thus, there is small credibility that the elections were falsified, as Milosevic had extensive support among Serbs.
The growth of the tension between Serbs and Albanians was featured by the increased national prejudice of these two peoples against each other. The Kosovo Liberation Army, which consisted of radically geared Albanians arranged ethnic cleansings of Serbian Villages, and gained help from the west (weapons, medicines), and was noticed in contacts with Al Kaeda. Originally, the warriors of this army were Islamic radicalizes, who wished to clean out Serbs from Kosovo. Albanian militants were killing Serbian policemen, while Serbs destroyed Albanian villages, where the warriors of KLA were noticed. KLA militants performed more than 2000 attacks. More than 300 people were killed, and more than 300 became hostages of Albanian militants.
In 1999 the antiterrorist operation was held. Nearly 40 Albanians were killed. It is unknown, whether they were civilians or KLA militants, however, this action has become the precedent for military, political and economic pressure on Serbia, and Milosevic as the president of Serbia. NATO forces threatened with the use of military sanctions against Serbia in order to make Milosevic stop punitive actions against Kosovan separatists. When the negotiations reached their deadlock, Milosevic was accused of this. OSCE observers left Kosovo on March the 19th, 1999, and NATO aviation performed the missile strike upon Serbia.
It is necessary to emphasize that the responsibility of Milosevic is rather arguable. As it has been emphasized, he prevented any separatist movements, and, surely, he could not bear the cruelties by Albanian militants against Serbs. It is known that KLA’s main financial source was drug trafficking, consequently, the antiterrorist operation in Racak was reasonable.
As for the cruel actions against Croatian and Montenegran separatists, it is the only thing he should be accused of. Nevertheless, the details of these actions are either unclear or contradictive. Moreover, these actions were not the reason for starting the criminal chase for Milosevic. This ethnical conflict became the arena of political confrontation, as too many details stay unclear even after the death of Milosevic, and proclaiming Kosovo as the autonomous republic.
Milosevic’s coming to power happened in the circumstances of the nationalism growth in the republics of Yugoslavia, which followed after the collapse of communist governments and democratic revolutions all through eastern Europe. Thus, in 1990, Slovenians gave preference to the nationalist government headed by Milan Kučan, and the Croatians elected Franjo Tudman. The Communist single-party system in Bosnia and Herzegovina was replaced with the unstable union of three ethnic parties.
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