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| Cases: Slobodan Milosevic
| Keeping track of civil and criminal cases as they develop. More info here.
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(last updated February 2, 2002)
The long, bloody fall of Yugoslavia began with the end of the Cold War, resulted in several wars -- the last ending only due to military intervention by the United States and NATO -- and is now being played out in an international court of war crimes, the UN-created International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Of all the people facing charges by the ICTY, the most prominent is surely Slobodan Milosevic, who as president led Serbia in its nationalistic campaign of military aggression for almost ten years. He now stands trial for his involvement in three different wars, and trial is scheduled to begin on February 12, 2002, with evidence concerning Kosovo presented first with evidence concerning Bosnia and Croatia presented beginning July 1.
Milosevic was first indicted as a war criminal in absentia in May 1999 while NATO bombed Serbian forces invading Kosovo. He was then ousted from power in popular elections held in September 2000, arrested by Serbian authorities in April 2001, and finally transferred to the ICTY's control in June 2001. He was indicted initially only for leading Serbia's systematic expulsion and execution of Muslims from Kosovo in early 1999, though charges were later added in October 2001 and November 2001 for his involvement in earlier wars in Croatia and Bosnia.
There have been several wars involving the republics that once made up Yugoslavia, and one major internal conflict in the province of Kosovo where Serbian forces struck against rebels representing the Albania majority. The two involving direct United States military intervention were the Bosnia-Serbian war from 1992 to 1995, which ended with a few days of NATO bombing and the Dayton peace accords, and the Serbian actions in Kosovo in 1999, which ended with more than two months of NATO bombing. Milosevic has been indicted for his role in these two wars, as well as for his involvement in the Croatian-Serbian war which began in 1991 and ended in 1992 due to UN involvement.
The Kosovo charges against Milosevic were initially supposed to be tried separately from the Croatia and Bosnia indictments, with prosecutors estimating that a trial of each indictment separately would take nine to 13 months each and involve hundreds of witnesses. Because the Kosovo events took place several years after the events in the Croatia and Bosnia indictments, the ICTY's trial chamber initially decided to try the Kosovo indictment separately and to join only the Croatia and Bosnia indictments. The ICTY's appellate chamber reversed that decision on February 1, 2002 and joined all three indictments into one, multi-part trial.
The ICTY was created by the United Nations' Security Council in early 1993, with the 11 judges of the tribunal taking office on November 17, 1993. The Tribunal's mandate is to do justice, to deter future crimes, and to contribute to the restoration and maintenance of peace in the former Yugoslavia. It is a successor in some ways to the Nuremburg and Tokyo Tribunals after World War II, but unlike those bodies, it counts representatives from all countries, not just the victorious parties after a war. Like its contemporary counterpart, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the ICTY has limited jurisdiction; the proposed International Criminal Court would have general jurisdiction over war crimes but has not yet been accepted by the international community and has been opposed by the United States (for more on the proposed ICC, go here.
- June 28, 1989: Commemorating the 600th anniversary of Serbia's loss of the Kosovo province to Turkish invaders, Slobodan Milosevic publicly appeals to Serbian nationalism, a strategy that will put him into power for more than a decade. Already the leader of Serbia's principal political party, he begins the first of two terms as Serbian president in 1990.
- June 28, 1991: The first Balkan war begins as Yugoslavia invades Slovenia. The war lasts just 10 days and ends with Slovenian independence.
- August 1991: The Croatian-Serbian war begins. It ends in early 1992 with the deployment of UN forces.
- December 1991: Germany announces that it will officially recognize Croatia and Slovenia as independent countries in January 1992.
- April 1992: Reacting to Bosnia's declarations of independence in March 1992, Serbia invades Bosnia and begins a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Muslims and Croats living there. The war eventually results in the killing of more than 100,000 people, the displacement of more than half Bosnia's population, and the rape of thousands of women. The war lasts until the fall of 1995.
- May 25, 1993: The United Nations Security Counsel establishes the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to prosecute persons allegedly responsible for violations of international humanitarian law involving breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, violations of the customs of war, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
- July 1995: Serbian forces following orders designed by Bosnian Serbia President Dr. Radovan Karadzic begin shelling the city of Srebrenica, then under UN protection, in order to drive out Muslim inhabitants. Bosnian Serbs then conduct what has been called the worst single mass murder since World War II, with the execution of thousands of Muslims who had been captured after the town surrendered. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that 7,079 Muslims were murdered from July 12 to July 16.
- August 30, 1995: NATO begins bombing Sarajevo to force the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Bosnia.
- November 1 to 21, 1995: Dayton peace talks lead to a peace agreement, the withdrawal of Serbian forces from Sarajevo, and the end of the Bosnian war. US forces are deployed beginning in December 1995 to implement the peace agreement.
- 1997: Milosevic is elected president of Yugoslavia, which encompasses Serbia and Montenegro as regions.
- October 1998: Serbian forces wage war against the Kosovo Liberation Army, a group of rebels seeking independence for the Kosovo region from Serbia. Kosovo is the province whose loss in 1389 Serbia commemorates every June 28.
- January 1999: Serbian forces begin offensives against Kosovo Albanian towns and villages. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians are expelled from their homes and many are killed.
- March 24, 1999: With Clinton denouncing Milosevic for feeding the "flames of ethnic and religious division" in Kosovo and other neighboring regions, NATO begins airstrikes against targets in Serbia. The air strikes go on for more than 70 days before Milosevic agrees to NATO's demands and withdraws military forces from Kosovo.
- May 27, 1999: As NATO continues its airstrikes and as western powers try to negotiate with Milosevic, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicts Milosevic and four others as war criminals for their actions in Kosovo. Milosevic allegedly led the expulsion of Kosovo Albanians from Kosovo with the aim of securing Serbian control; actions committed in this campaign included the murder of hundreds, the forcible transfer and deportation of 800,000 Kosovo Albanians, and the destruction and looting of property.
- June 3, 1999: With the NATO air strikes in their 72nd day, Milosevic agrees to NATO's demands that Yugoslavia withdraw its forces from Kosovo and to begin a political process towards self-determination there. The military withdraws its last forces from Kosovo on June 21, 1999. Milosevic remains in power, though the Clinton administration begins imposing economic sanctions to force Milosevic's ouster.
- December 10, 1999: Croatian President Franco Tudjman dies in office.
- September 24, 2000: Yugoslavia holds popular elections for president. Vojislav Kostunica, a constitutional scholar who is the leading opposition candidates, declares victory over Milosevic. Milosevic's supporters dispute the election results and accuse Kostunica of electoral fraud, eventually leading thousands of Serbs to demonstrate and wrest control away from Milosevic.
- October 6, 2000: Bowing to the popular uprising over the disputed election, Slobodan Milosevic resigns as Yugoslavia's president. Kostunica takes office soon afterwards.
- April 1, 2001: Serbian authorities arrest Milosevic.
- June 28, 2001: On the eve of a conference which the Yugoslavian government hoped would result in grants of aid, the Serbian government delivers Milosevic to the ICTY to eventually stand trial. Some criticize Milosevic's transfer for taking place without the approval and knowledge of President Vojislav Kostunica. The day is the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of war in Slovenia and Croatia, the 12th anniversary of Milosevic's first major speech appealing to Serbian nationalism, and the 612th anniversary of Serbia's loss of the Kosovo province to Turkish invaders.
- August 2, 2001: Former Bosnian Serb General Radislav Kristic is found guilty of genocide for his involvement in the execution of more than 7,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995 and sentenced to 46 years in prison. Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and army commander General Ratko Mladic, also indicted for Srebrenica, remain at large. Milosevic himself has not been indicted for Srebrenica but only for Kosovo at this time.
- October 8, 2001: Prosecutors indict Milosevic on charges relating to the Croatian war of 1992-92. Milosevic allegedly led the forcible removal of Croat and non-Serb peoples from about one-third of Croatia, and did so through the murder of hundreds, the imprisonment of thousands in detention facilities, sexual assault, the use of forced labor, and the deportation of 170,000 civilians.
- November 22, 2001: Prosecutors indict Milosevic on charges relating to the Bosnian war from 1992 to 1995. Milosevic allegedly led the forcible removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from large areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and did so through the killing of thousands, the detention of thousands, forcible transfer, and other crimes against humanity.
- December 13, 2001: A panel of ICTY judges serving as the Trial Chamber sets a trial date of February 12, 2002 for the Kosovo indictment against Milosevic, but declines a request to join the Croatia and Bosnia indictments with the Kosovo indictment into one single trial. Even though prosecutors say that a single trial would be more cost-effective and would ensure consistent verdicts, the panel says that the gap of more than three years between the last events in Bosnia and the first events in Kosovo show that the charges are not closely related to justify combination in one trial.
- February 1, 2002: An appellate panel of ICTY judges overrules the Trial Chamber's December 13, 2001 decision and allows all three indictments against Milosevic (Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, in chronological order) to be joined into one trial beginning February 12, 2002. Prosecutors are expected to begin with Kosovo-related charges and to begin presenting evidence concerning Croatia and Bosnia in July 2002. The trial will probably go on for many months and probably more than a year; a trial on each indictment separately was expected to take nine to 13 months each.
- February 12, 2002: Trial scheduled to begin against Slobodan Milosevic.
Sources: Legal documents and information concerning the Milosevic case are available via the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, on-line here.
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