SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - YUGOSLAVIA

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06569671
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: March 16, 2022
• Document Release Date: June 15, 2016
• Case Number: F-2016-01087
• Publication Date: June 23, 1992

Approved for Release: 2016/06/10 C06569671
YUGOSLAVIA
Slobodan MILOSEVIC
(Phonetic: meeLOshehveech)
President, Republic of Serbia (since 1989)
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic faces mounting challenges to his regime, but for now he
remains defiant and in control. He holds the reins of the Serbian media and has strong influence
over the Yugoslav Army. A clever tactician, Milosevic is keeping the opposition off-balance; his
backing of nominally independent and immensely popular Serbian novelist Dobrica Cosic as
president of the rump Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and his stated willingness to bring opposition
party members into a new government have undermined his critics. For the first time, however,
Milosevic is facing criticism from within his own party, from members of the Serbian Academy of
Sciences--once a stronghold of Milosevic supporters--and from the Serbian Orthodox Church.
His ability to stave off unrest caused by mounting economic problems�worsened by UN sanctions
--is also decreasing as hyperinflation and a lack of foreign credits limit his ability to continue
flooding the printing presses.
Milosevic has put aside his slogan of "all Serbs in one state" and is concentrating instead on
legitimizing a rump Yugoslavia composed only of Serbia and its ally, Montenegro. He has been
cultivating strong ties to Serb leaders outside Serbia and Montenegro, probably to enable him to
eventually attach to his evolving state areas where there are Serb majorities. Although Milosevic
does not uniformly control Serb leaders outside Serbia, he is largely responsible for their rise to
power and is in close contact with them. Goran Hadzic, president of the "Serbian Republic of
Krajina" (in Croatia) has said he has good relations with Milosevic and has called him the "greatest
politician alive."
In our judgment, the primary motive underlying Milosevic's political behavior is a strong
drive to exercise power and control.
Milosevic, in our view, sincerely identifies with his ethnic heritage and appeals to the
intense nationalism of Serbs and to their feelings of manifest destiny. He uses an emotional
national appeal to avoid being outflanked by those who criticize him for abandoning Serb
brethren in other republics.
In 1989, Milosevic forced his former mentor out of the Serbian presidency and was subsequently
elected to the post in December 1990 with 65 percent of the vote. Since then, Milosevic has
considered himself unbeatable and as having few restraints on his actions within Serbia.
He apparently sometimes
listens to Foreign Minister V ladislav Jovanovic, however, and has made attempts to improve his
international image.
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The Drive to Power
Milosevic was born in Pozarevac on 20 August 1941. His father, an orthodox priest,
abandoned his family and then committed suicide. Milosevic's mother also killed herself,
according to press reports. Milosevic joined the Communist Party at 18. After graduating
from the Law Faculty of the University of Belgrade in 1964, he held a series of economic-related
party positions. Milosevic joined the Belgrade firm Technogas in 1968 and became its director in
1973. In 1978 he took up the post of president of the Bank of Belgrade, one of Yugoslavia's
largest financial institutions. He returned to full-time politics as Belgrade party chief in 1984 under
the tutelage of his mentor, then Serbian Communist party chief Ivan Stambolic. Milosevic took
over as head of the Serbian party in 1986
In April 1987, Milosevic captured international attention with his
dramatic appearance at a protest meeting of Kosovo Serbs, where he initiated an inflammatory
campaign to "right the wrongs" they were suffering and demanded rapid progress toward full
democracy and a market economy. On 8 May 1989 he became President of Serbia.
One on One
Milosevic is impressively articulate, self-confident, and in command of his brief in
face-to-face meetings. Usually affable and relaxed--during meetings in his office
he is a master at thinking and acting under pressure,
Milosevic has been to Beijing and Moscow once and has visited the United States more
than a dozen times, mostly as a banker. Since returning to politics, he has made private trips
to Western Europe about once a year. He is on good terms with Greek Prime Minister
Constantine Mitsotakis
On 7 March 1992 he suffered a light concussion in a car accident, according to press
reports. Milosevic speaks English. He is married to his childhood sweetheati, Mirjana Markovic,
now a hardline university professor, assertive Communist Party ideologue, and niece of a
onetime party chief The couple has a daughter and a son.
LDA M 92-13202
23 June 1992
Approved for Release: 2016/06/10 C06569671