That history began back in 1993, at the height of the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, when, by the unanimous decision of all 15 members of the United Nations Security Council, the “International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991” was established (the Tribunal’s full official name). This Tribunal of ours was the first true international criminal court, in essence, with jurisdiction to try the gravest international crimes (the models and predecessors in Nuremberg and Tokyo were in fact military tribunals).
At the time, Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia, and he made extensive use of that office to organize, carry out, and support a policy of mass crimes in the armed conflicts in neighboring countries. Shortly after the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina ended, and after he had become the “guarantor of peace in the Balkans,” he assumed the office of President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), along with the attendant roles of President of the Supreme Defense Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Yugoslav Army.
Buoyed by his imagined untouchability because of his role in accepting and signing peace agreements, he paid no heed to warnings from the international community about the escalation of violence in Kosovo. Exactly two months after the start of the NATO intervention, prompted by the terror and violence of the military and police forces over which he held authority both de jure and de facto, Milošević entered history as the first president to be indicted for war crimes by the prosecutor of the first international court. That first indictment concerned crimes in Kosovo and the “expulsion of approximately 800,000 Albanian civilians by forced displacement and the shelling of villages, followed by the destruction of property, looting, confiscation of identification documents, abuse, and killings” (excerpt from the indictment). The accused Milošević ignored these charges, but even after leaving power on October 6, 2000, and during negotiations over his surrender on April 1, 2001 (pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by a Belgrade court for financial crime, namely embezzlement and abuse of office), he demanded guarantees from the new federal and republican governments that he would not be extradited to the Tribunal. He was transferred to the Tribunal’s detention unit on June 29 of that same year.
At his first appearance before the Trial Chamber on July 3, 2001, he pleaded not guilty to any of the five counts in the indictment for crimes in Kosovo. Shortly thereafter (on October 8), the Prosecution indicted him for crimes committed in Croatia, which included the “forcible removal of the majority of the Croatian and other non-Serb population (approximately 170,000 civilians) from roughly one-third of the territory of Croatia, detention under inhumane conditions, the killing of several hundred civilians, and the destruction and looting of public and private property, as well as religious, historical, and cultural institutions” (excerpt from the indictment).
The indictment for crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina was issued on November 22, 2001, for the “extermination or killing and deportation of thousands of Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats, and other civilians of non-Serb nationality, as well as the widespread killing of thousands of local Bosniaks, their detention in detention facilities under living conditions calculated to bring about the partial physical destruction of these groups, when thousands were killed or suffered serious bodily and mental harm” (excerpt from the indictment).
At both subsequent appearances to enter pleas regarding responsibility for crimes in Croatia (October 29, 2001) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (December 1, 2001), the accused Milošević denied guilt on all 32 counts (Croatia) and 29 counts (Bosnia and Herzegovina), respectively.
In each of the indictments (Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), it was stated that Milošević had participated in a joint criminal enterprise and that, “acting alone or in concert with other participants in the JCE, he planned, instigated, ordered, committed, or otherwise aided and abetted the planning, preparation, and execution of the crimes alleged, or exercised effective control over or had substantial influence on the participants in the JCE and the actions of members of institutions and formations that were essential to, or participated in, the commission of the criminal offenses.” The purpose of each of the three JCEs was the expulsion, that is, the forcible and permanent removal of the majority of the non-Serb population from large parts of the war-affected territories.
The joint criminal enterprises spanned different periods (in Croatia, from the summer of 1991 to June 1992; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the summer of 1991 to the end of 1995; in Kosovo, from January 1 to June 20, 1999). Depending on the territory in which the conflict was taking place, the persons involved included individuals holding positions in the Presidency of the SFRY, the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav People’s Army/Yugoslav Army, the ministries of defense and internal affairs, territorial defense organizations led by Serbs in the relevant areas, the armies of the Croatian and Bosnian Serbs, paramilitary and parapolice units, as well as groups of Serbian volunteers.
Alongside Milošević and other known and unknown persons, participants included Borisav Jović, Branko Kostić, Veljko Kadijević, Blagoje Adžić, Milan Babić, Milan Martić, Goran Hadžić, Jovica Stanišić, Franko Simatović Frenki, Vojislav Šešelj, Momir Bulatović, Aleksandar Vasiljević, Radovan Stojičić Badža, Željko Ražnatović Arkan (in Croatia), Radovan Karadžić, Momčilo Krajišnik, Biljana Plavšić, Ratko Mladić, Borisav Jović, Branko Kostić, Veljko Kadijević, Blagoje Adžić, Milan Martić, Jovica Stanišić, Franko Simatović Frenki, Vojislav Šešelj, Radovan Stojičić Badža, Željko Ražnatović Arkan (in Bosnia and Herzegovina), Milan Milutinović, Nikola Šainović, Dragoljub Ojdanić, and Vlajko Stojiljković (in Kosovo).
The historical significance and uniqueness of these proceedings are reflected in the following facts:
for all the crimes with which he was charged, Milošević was prosecuted under both forms of criminal responsibility—individual responsibility pursuant to Article 7(1), and responsibility for the crimes or omissions of his subordinates (command responsibility), pursuant to Article 7(3) of the Tribunal’s Statute.
A total of 66 counts across the three indictments encompassed all four categories of criminal offenses set out in the Statute: Grave Breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions—Article 2 (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Violations of the Laws or Customs of War—Article 3 (Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Genocide and Complicity in Genocide—Article 4 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Crimes Against Humanity—Article 5 (Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Milošević’s trial was the only proceeding before the Tribunal to encompass all three wars in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
THE TRIAL
The trial began on February 12, 2002, with opening statements and soon continued with the presentation of evidence relating to the charges for crimes in Kosovo.
The Prosecution concluded the presentation of evidence regarding Kosovo on September 11, 2002. The presentation of evidence relating to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina began on September 26, 2002, and ended on February 25, 2004, several days ahead of schedule, after the trial had been adjourned on multiple occasions due to the poor health of the accused, Milošević.
During the proceedings, 296 Prosecution witnesses, 53 Defense witnesses, and two witnesses of the Trial Chamber testified. More than 5,000 exhibits were admitted into evidence, along with numerous witnesses who were direct victims, members of the warring parties, international officials, former Milošević associates, participants in the conflicts, and military, political, police, legal, media, and demographic experts.
In this legally and factually highly complex case, the Prosecution presented evidence of Milošević’s involvement in dozens of crimes committed against thousands of victims in three countries over a period of more than four years, as well as a large number of confidential documents whose state-secrecy designation was lifted because of these proceedings. The public was thus given the opportunity to see and hear in what ways his regime, through financial, material, and personnel support, enabled and assisted the wars, above all in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Defense began presenting its evidence on August 31, 2004. From the very beginning, the accused Milošević chose to represent himself. Both during the presentation of the Prosecution’s case and during the time allotted to him for his defense, he paid no heed to the crimes with which he was charged. On multiple occasions, he behaved as though he were in fact putting the international community on trial, and the witnesses he called served as a screen for political speeches in which he portrayed himself as an innocent victim of the “new world order.”
Although four years passed on the calendar from the beginning to the end of the trial, the presentation of evidence by the Prosecution and the Defense in fact lasted only 14 months. He died three weeks before the deadline set for the presentation of the Defense case expired.
Jelena Stevančević is a longtime human rights and rule-of-law activist and former coordinator of the Humanitarian Law Center’s project Monitoring Trials before the International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia.
The blog was written for a regional platform on Dealing with the Past. For more information please visit the Column section of DwP website.