Miloseviç, Slobodan

Born: 1941

President of Serbia: 1989-

Father, a school teacher, left home when Miloseviç was in elementary school and committed suicide in 1962

Mother committed suicide in 1973.

Miloseviç married Marjana Markoviç, a high-school classmate and Communist activist from a leading Serbian Communist family

Joined the Communist party in 1959.

Graduated with a law degree from Belgrade University in 1964.

Served as the director of Belgrade's leading bank from 1978 to 1983.

In 1984 Ivan Stamboliç, the chief of the Serbian Communist party, made him head of the party's Belgrade organization.

Succeeded Stamboliç as party leader in January 1986.

In May 1989 he became president of Serbia, ousting Stamboliç.

Abolished Kosovo's autonomy, which provoked alarm in the rest of Yugoslavia.

Overwhelmingly reelected president in Serbia's first multiparty and direct presidential elections, in December 1990. His party, now called the Socialist Party of Serbia, won 194 of the 250 seats in the Serbian parliament.

Has imprisoned or ousted his political rivals and tightly controls the Serbian media. The leading Belgrade daily newspaper, Borba, was brought under state control in January 1995.

Miloseviç has also continued to persecute ethnic minorities in Serbia, especially in the minority-dominated areas of Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Sandäk.

In Kosovo, which has been under military occupation since 1989, many ethnic Albanians have been fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, or subjected to other forms of discrimination. Albanian children have often been prevented from entering state schools, especially during the period from September 1990 to September 1994.

Other minorities such as Muslims and ethnic Hungarians have also been persecuted by Miloseviç's regime, and thousands have fled.

Declarations of independence by all of Yugoslavia's republics except Serbia and Montenegro led to civil war in Croatia (1991) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (since April 1992), both of which have large minorities of Serbs.

See Also:

Religious Wars in the Balkans
In what ways are the conflicts in the Balkans, like in Bosnia or Kosovo, ultimately reducible to religious hatred?

Albania
Facts and details about this key nation

Balkan Overview
An overview of the different ethnic/religious groups involved

Kosovo
Basic facts and details about Kosovo, including a historical time line.

Regional History
Brief overview of the Balkan region and what has historically happened there

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