SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - "FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA"

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06569678
• 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: August 12, 1999

Approved for Release: 2016/06/10 C06569678
"FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA"
Slobodan MILOSEVIC
(Phonetic: meeLOHshehveech)
President, "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" (FRY) (since 1997)
Addressed as: Mr. President
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
Slobodan Milosevic faces widespread popular opposition to his rule following the devastation of Serbia's
economy by over two months of NATO airstrikes. Milosevic--who miscalculated both the likelihood and
extent of NATO attacks--is blamed for Serbia's increasing isolation from the international community and
for Serbia's worsening economic situation, Despite ongoing public (b)(1)
demonstrations and criticism from a wide variety of political figures--including major church officials, the (b)(3)
former top Yugoslav Army commander, and the former National Bank Governor--there is no indication
that Milosevic views his hold on power as slipping. (b)(1)
Milosevic is counting on the inability of his political rivals to unite and on his control over the security (b)(3)
forces to see him through this challenge to his power. (b)(3)
Milosevic technically wields little authority as FRY President. The key levers of power--the Internal
Affairs Ministry, the media, and the economy--are controlled in practice at the republic level, and the
republic presidents officially have considerable influence over the use of the Yugoslav Army. Despite his
limited constitutional prerogatives, Milosevic has been the ultimate decision maker in FRY and in Serbian
affairs because of his control over the party apparatus and an extensive patronage system.
Milosevic also has prevented the opposition from effectively mounting a challenge to his authority to
date by co-opting opposition politicians into governing coalitions with the SPS and with his wife's
Yugoslav United Left (JUL) movement in order to sow dissent and suspicion in his opponents' ranks. He
successfully used this tactic to break up local opposition governments in several major towns where
prodemocratic coalitions took control following local elections in 1996. Milosevic also has convinced
leading opposition parties�specifically the Serbian Renewal Movement and the Serbian Radical Party--to
participate in the FRY and Serbian governments in order to maintain his hold on power after the SPS lost
its majority in the Serbian Assembly in 1997.
Rise to Power
Milosevic was born in Pozarevac on 20 August 1941. He joined the Communist Party at the age of 18.
His father, an Orthodox priest whom he barely knew, committed suicide when Milosevic was in his early
twenties and his mother, a hardline Communist, also committed suicide 10 years later, according to press
reports. After graduating from the Law Faculty of the University of Belgrade in 1964, he held a series of
economic-related party positions. Milosevic joined a Belgrade firm, Technogas, in 1968 and became its
director in 1973. In 1978 he assumed 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. Milosevic
took over as head of the Serbian Communist party in 1986. In April 1987 he captured international
attention with his dramatic appearance at a protest meeting of Kosovo Serbs, where he initiated an
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
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inflammatory nationalist campaign to right the wrongs he claimed they were suffering. He became Serbian
President in 1989. He was popularly elected to the position in 1990 and reelected in 1992. After serving
the two-term maximum in that post, Milosevic moved to the FRY Presidency (which is elected b
Yugoslav parliament members) and engineered his successor's election to the Serbian presidency
Milosevic speaks excellent, though accented, English. His wife has been widel described as his closest
confidante and adviser. The couple has a daughter, Marija, and a son, Marko.
Milosevic 's Indictmen
Milosevic was indicted on 27 May 1999 by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague for his
role as the supreme decision maker in the Yugoslav Army and Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs brutal
repression of the Albanian separatist movement in Kosovo. Further charges against Milosevic for his
involvement in the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts may also be filed. The Tribunal has issued global
warrants for his arrest, making it extremely difficult for Milosevic to travel outside Serbia--or to go into
exile if his hold on power collapsed. Ironically, Belgrade is required to hand over war criminals to the
Tribunal--although it has vet to do so--under the Dayton Agreement which Milosevic himself signed
1
The US Government does not officially recognize the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
LP 99-106521
1? Analiet 99
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