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He dominated Balkan politics throughout the 1990s; for most of the 2000s he has been on trial for the 11 years of his rule. In the first six years after he became president of Yugoslavia, in May 1989, Milosevic was instrumental in initiating, continuing, or guiding conflicts in Croatia (1991) and Bosnia (1992). Many thousands died, over 8,000 of them on the site of the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, at Srebrenica. Those wars ended when the Dayton peace agreement was signed, in 1995, and for a time it seemed he might be overthrown.
But he survived, to win re-election in July 1997. Then, as a rebellion flared up in Kosovo, he launched a brutal crackdown that affected huge numbers of the province's overwhelming ethnic-Albanian population. The international community's reaction this time was swifter and harsher, with sanctions and air strikes aimed at Serbia. This time too, the domestic repercussions were greater: in October 2000, Milosevic was overthrown in a revolution.
Milosevic became a test case for an international justice system eager to hold accountable some of those guilty of genocide in the Balkans and in Rwanda, but it was only in March 2001 that the new Serbian government allowed him to be brought to court. On trial since February 2002, Milosevic is charged on 66 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. At home, in Serbia, he is also suspected of the murder of many of his critics, including that of Ivan Stambolic, his one-time mentor and Serbian president.
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