The Indictment of Slobodan Milošević
- First sitting head of state indicted
- Slobodan Milošević became the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes by the ICTY in May 1999, during NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia.
- Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said the aim was to show that even high ranking leaders could be held accountable.
- Charges and time frame
- He was accused of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war during the Kosovo conflict (1998–1999).
- Specific allegations
- Murder of over 800 ethnic Albanian civilians.
- Deportation of over 800,000 Kosovo Albanians.
- Forcible transfer and persecution based on political, racial, and religious grounds.
• Widespread destruction of homes and cultural monuments.
Status, limits on arrest, and overthrow
- Still in power at indictment
- Milošević was President of Yugoslavia when the ICTY indicted him in May 1999.
- As head of state, he relied on domestic authority and control over national institutions, including the police and military.
- Enforcement constraints and rejection
- The ICTY had no power to arrest him without Yugoslav cooperation.
- He refused to recognize the tribunal’s legitimacy, calling it "victor's justice."
- Fall from power in 2000
- In 2000, he was forced out of power by a popular uprising after fraudulent elections.
- In September 2000, he tried to rig a presidential election to stay in office, but Vojislav Koštunica actually won.
- The "Bulldozer Revolution" and resignation
- The crisis sparked mass protests in October 2000, especially in Belgrade.
- Hundreds of thousands demanded his resignation, and he stepped down on 5 October 2000.
The "Bulldozer Revolution"
- The "Bulldozer Revolution" refers to the mass protests in Serbia in October 2000 that led to the fall of President Slobodan Milošević.
- The immediate trigger was the fraudulent presidential election of September 2000, in which opposition candidate Vojislav Koštunica clearly won, but Milošević tried to manipulate the outcome.
- Years of war, economic collapse, corruption, and international isolation had eroded public support for Milošević, fueling the protests.
- On 5 October 2000, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Belgrade, stormed the federal parliament, and demanded Milošević’s resignation.
- The movement was largely peaceful, though symbolically powerful: a bulldozer led the crowd, giving the revolution its name.
- State media stations were taken over, and parts of the police and military sided with the demonstrators.
Arrest, extradition, and expanded charges
- Serbia’s initial resistance
- After Milošević lost power in 2000, Serbia resisted handing him over.
- President Vojislav Koštunica, though an opponent of Milošević, was a nationalist and publicly opposed cooperating with the ICTY.
