Milosevic

Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists made incremental gains in the Serbian parliamentary elections to about half the seats. It was neither triumph nor setback. And the opposition did not really oppose the aggression that has been successful in establishing the outlines of Serbian national achievement -- all Serbs in one state -- to which most Serbs instinctively aspire.But it doesn't matter. Mr. Milosevic, an authoritarian president, never needed parliamentary majorities. The more significant election for Yugoslavia's future was Russia's, where Russian nationalism, as a caricature of the worst features of Serbian nationalism writ large, made such gains and showed such sympathy for Mr. Milosevic's policy that the likelihood of any Western nation getting in the way of Serb aggression greatly receded.

BELGRADE, Serbia -- Slobodan Milosevic's feared paramilitary commander was found guilty yesterday in the 2003 murder of pro-Western Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, an assassination that shocked the nation and damaged the cause of democratic reform. Milorad Ulemek, former head of the notorious Red Berets, his deputy and 10 other men were convicted of planning and carrying out the murder of Serbia's first democratically elected prime minister. The killing was a bid to return Milosevic's allies to power and halt Belgrade's cooperation with the war crimes tribunal at The Hague, the court said.

VIENNA, Va. - One must wonder, watching the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic, about what exactly the prosecution is trying to do. Why call on witnesses who clearly had no clue - nor could be expected to have a clue - about the former Yugoslav dictator's "command responsibility" for much of the chaos, killings and destruction in the Balkans during the 1990s? What could an ethnic Albanian farmer possibly tell the Hague Tribunal about it? There must be a good explanation for this. Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has hinted that some strong witnesses - people from Mr. Milosevic's former entourage - will testify.

My smart and ambitious Serbian language teacher in Belgrade last summer spoke for an entire generation of young people in the former Yugoslavia when she unleashed a bitter tirade on the difficulties of obtaining a visa to travel abroad, even to nearby Austria or Italy. "I feel like I'm in a prison," Marija complained, "and I don't even know who to blame!" Not all of Marija's friends are so unsure. Many, she told me, feel the European Union is blackmailing Serbs by requiring their government to arrest Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic - indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity - before restarting its "stabilization and association agreement" with Belgrade.

PARIS -- Peace has provided Slobodan Milosevic, president of Serbia, with means and motive for strengthening his control over the successor Yugoslav state, composed of Serbia plus Montenegro.This is one result of the Dayton agreements on Bosnian peace. Mr. Milosevic was the man the Western powers had to deal with if they expected to end -- or suspend -- the war. They might otherwise have sought his indictment by the international war crimes tribunal now at work in The Hague.Mr. Milosevic is the man who started the war (with considerable help from others in the former Yugoslavia)

WASHINGTON -- Slobodan Milosevic's calling of new presidential and parliamentary elections in Yugoslavia next month has touched off new divisions in a transatlantic debate over policy in the Balkans. The dictator has altered the constitution to make it possible for him to retain the presidency, which he was to relinquish next year. Few doubt that Mr. Milosevic, who is accused of war crimes by the Hague Tribunal for his role in the Kosovo war, is prepared to use whatever means necessary to secure victory.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- A month ago, it seemed a foregone conclusion. Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic's aides were cockily giving the precise number of seats his Socialist Party would sweep, giving them a strong majority in today's parliamentary elections.Now they're not so sure.Arctic temperatures, which have brought new hardships to a people already in the grip of grinding poverty, seem to have highlighted the economic and foreign policy failures of the regime.Mr. Milosevic still commands respect personally, but polls are showing his party's popularity declining rapidly.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- It is as though everyone on both sides of the Atlantic has fallen in love with Vojislav Kostunica, the new president of Yugoslavia. It's almost euphoric. But it's also possible to discern a certain pattern. The euphoria is in inverse proportion to the distance from Belgrade. The reactions of people from Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo are reserved, to say the least. As prime victims of Slobodan Milosevic's policies, they were so traumatized that it really seems difficult for them to believe that a new era just dawned in Serbia.

BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro -- Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remained a divisive figure in death yesterday as controversies erupted over the display of his body and his former political opponents hurried to organize a demonstration to counter the adulation expected at his funeral tomorrow. They launched a text-message campaign urging their supporters to go to the center of Belgrade and let fly balloons at the same time as the rites. The former president was found dead Saturday in the United Nations detention center at The Hague, where he was being tried on charges of genocide and war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

For a long time, Slobodan Milosevic, who Serbian authorities handed over yesterday into the custody of the United Nations war crimes tribunal, seemed destined to be an unremarkable leader. His notoriety came first from words, then deeds. He began uttering notably inflammatory words in 1987, by promising the Serbs of Kosovo that they would one day lord it over the ethnic Albanians who then dominated the province. His deadly deeds began in 1991, when he sent tanks to the border of Slovenia, triggering a brief war that began the breakup of Yugoslavia at an eventual cost of tens of thousands of lives.

The death this month of Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator whose secret police killed and tortured thousands of dissidents, helped seal 2006 as the most fateful year for war criminals and other human rights violators since the Nuremberg trials of 1946. But, at the same time, the docket of human-rights crimes is growing larger and more ill-defined than ever. Just as the nature of human rights violations is evolving, so must the international community's response. The International Criminal Court at The Hague will need extra resources to handle all of its cases and adjudicate the messier ones.

WASHINGTON -- Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has let the nationalist genie out of the bottle and may be unable to put it back anytime soon. This will have serious repercussions for Serbia's relations with the European Union and the United States, Montenegro's independence referendum, the future status of Kosovo and cooperation with The Hague war crimes tribunal. By providing Slobodan Milosevic with a state funeral in all but name, Mr. Kostunica disgraced Serbia and demonstrated his commitment to preserving Mr. Milosevic's legacy and interpretation of history.

POZAREVAC, Serbia and Montenegro -- Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was buried in his hometown yesterday on a day that had the air of a political rally, with fervent crowds chanting his nickname, "Slobo," as though he were still their leader. Although more than 60,000 defiant supporters had gathered in the capital, Belgrade, earlier in the day to commemorate the former president, the burial service here in a small central Serbian town was low-key and oddly devoid of emotion.

LONDON -- Preliminary toxicology tests released yesterday on former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic found no evidence of poison or the presence of other drugs in quantities sufficient to kill him. Milosevic had a fatal heart attack in his prison cell in The Hague a week ago, ending his four-year trial on charges of war crimes and genocide. His family says he was poisoned. Others suspect suicide. The findings, disclosed in a letter from The Hague district public prosecutor, are likely to deepen the controversy.

BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro -- Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remained a divisive figure in death yesterday as controversies erupted over the display of his body and his former political opponents hurried to organize a demonstration to counter the adulation expected at his funeral tomorrow. They launched a text-message campaign urging their supporters to go to the center of Belgrade and let fly balloons at the same time as the rites. The former president was found dead Saturday in the United Nations detention center at The Hague, where he was being tried on charges of genocide and war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Last summer in The Hague, I asked a number of prosecutors working on the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic to imagine their nightmare scenario. None mentioned acquittal. They all turned to the fear that history would judge the trial a colossal failure if, after years of testimony and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, the former Yugoslav president died before a verdict could be reached and justice could be done. Now that the prosecutors' worst fears have come to pass, will history really be so severe?

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Milan Panic, the Serbian-born American millionaire invited here to take over as prime minister this year, has decided to run against the man who had brought him home to shore up his own image, Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and Mr. Milosevic's ruling ex-communist Socialist Party.Mr. Panic said his program of reconciliation and economic recovery has been undermined by Mr. Milosevic's "obstructionist policies.""I'm convinced that we will succeed only if Slobodan Milosevic is replaced," Mr. Panic said .The only other candidate for the Serbian presidency, Vuk Draskovic, leader of the largest opposition party, announced later yesterday that he would bow out of the Dec. 20 contest and throw his support behind Mr. Panic.

GROCKA, Yugoslavia -- In the heart of Slobodan Milosevic country, people bargain for live chickens, haul firewood and try to figure out just what gives with those demonstrators in the nearby capital of Belgrade.While the daily marches against Milosevic in urban areas have garnered world attention, the Serbian president still seems to have the affection of supporters in rural pockets such as Grocka, miles southeast of Belgrade's city center.Milosevic's supporters tend to get their news from the tightly controlled state-run media, rather than the independent stations supporting the opposition in the city.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein took the witness stand at his trial for the first time yesterday and openly incited insurgents to continue resisting the U.S. military presence in Iraq, prompting the chief judge to close the session to journalists and the public. Rather than answer capital charges that he orchestrated the torture and killing of Shiite Muslims in the 1980s, the deposed president delivered a rambling 49-minute harangue, his longest and most inflammatory of the five-month-old trial.

BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro -- The coffin slid down the luggage conveyor after a baby carriage, several large cartons and suitcases as a few friends gathered on the runway under a fine snow yesterday to welcome home the body of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The coffin was draped with the Serbian flag and put into a rented hearse for the trip to a state hospital morgue where the body would be held overnight. Milosevic will be buried Saturday in his hometown of Pozarevac.