Everything about Milan Milutinovi totally explained
Milan Milutinović (
Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Милутиновић), born
19 December,
1942 in
Belgrade, is a former President of
Serbia. He served as Director of the
National Library of Serbia (1983-88)
(External Link
), Ambassador in the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Yugoslavia, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (1995 - 1998) and as President of Serbia from 1998 until 2002. He was a political ally of
Slobodan Milošević. After his five year term as president expired in December 2002 he surrendered to the
ICTY and has been released in April 2005, still pending the trial.
Foreign Minister
Following a six-year term as Yugoslavia’s Ambassador to Greece (between 1992 and 1996, Milutinović was Yugoslavia’s only Ambassador to a Western state, as, due to the UN embargo imposed in May 1992, new ambassadors couldn't be appointed, while Milutinović was never withdrawn by Belgrade), Milutinović was appointed Yugoslavia’s Foreign Minister in 1995. In November 1995, he was one of the leading negotiators during the Bosnia peace negotiations in Dayton, Ohio and one of the draftsmen of what subsequently became the Dayton Peace Accords, which lead to the permanent cessation of hostilities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. During his term as Foreign Minister, he also signed several agreements between Yugoslavia and its neighbour and former enemy Croatia aimed at normalizing relations between the two countries.
Elections
After Slobodan Milošević's second, the last constitutionally allowable, mandate as the President of Serbia, he was controversially elected the president of Yugoslavia. Milošević's
Socialist Party of Serbia still wanted to retain the Serbian presidency, and their first candidate in the Serbian presidential elections in 1997 was Zoran Lilić. The first two rounds of elections failed as the necessary majority (under the 1990 Constitution) of population failed to vote.
A coalition of Socialist Party of Serbia,
Yugoslav Left and
New Democracy decided to change their candidate for the repeated elections, as the leader of the nationalist Serbian Radical Party
Vojislav Šešelj won the plurality against Lilić. Many of the opposition parties, led by the
Democratic Party, boycotted 1997 elections as they expected results manipulation.
Milutinović, a member of Socialist Party of Serbia, was the party's choice after Lilić's failure. In the second round of elections, held in December 1997, he won 59.23% by official count, while 50.98% voters turned out. Parties which boycotted the elections, as well as Vojislav Šešelj, who got 37.57%, still alleged manipulation of the election results.
Presidency
As Milošević became the President of the Yugoslav Federation, political power shifted to the federal level along with him, and Milutinović de facto enjoyed little political influence.
However, Milutinović was the leader of the Yugoslavian government's negotiation group in
Rambouillet in 1999, a prelude to the
NATO campaign against Yugoslavia. He still acted under Milošević's directives.
After Milošević and his party were ousted in 2000 and their political power marginalized on federal, republic and most local levels, Milutinović still remained in the office, as his term didn't end until 2002. His powers as the president were trivialized from 2000 to 2002, since his political affiliation didn't enjoy popular support and he couldn't be backed up by any other government branch. Milutinović was out of the eye of public performing only the most basic constitutional obligations without any opposition to the
Democratic Opposition of Serbia coalition.
In 2002, when his mandate expired, the presidential elections were held in which Milutinović didn't run. He was succeeded by an acting president
Nataša Mićić.
During the transition to democracy in late 2000, Milutinović refused to support a violent suppression of the October Demonstrations in Belgrade. The smooth relations between him and the new government, while in office, incurred the dislike of Milošević's closest allies, although there has never been an official rupture. At the same time, Milutinović didn't enjoy the support of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, as he in turn was considered, by most of its members, as a close ally of Milošević's. His political campaign during the 1997 Presidential Election “I Srbija i svet”--Both Serbia and the "World" (for example the abroad) is also indicative of a middle-of-the-road agenda in a time of high polarization in Serbian politics.
ICTY Indictment
Upon the expiry of his term in office, Milutinović turned himself in to International Crime Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2003. He is tried under joint war crimes indictment along with
Nikola Šainović and
Dragoljub Ojdanić.
Milutinović is prosecuted on four counts: deportation, murder as a crime against humanity, murder as violation of laws or customs of war and "other inhumane acts" during the War in Kosovo. The allegations include responsibility for mass murders at
Račak, Bela Crkva, Mala Kruša and Velika Kruša, Đakovica, Padalište, Izbica, Vucitrn, Meja, Dubrava, Suva Reka and Kačanik, during 1999.
According to the indictment, Milutinović had personal responsibility as the President of Serbia, with power over various governmental institutions. He was a member of the Yugoslavian Supreme Defense Council, thus making decisions in regard to the Yugoslavian Army. He also had a power to dissolve the Serbian Parliament. According to the indictment, during war time his
de jure powers were extended to ones belonging to the Parliament during peace time, including control of the police, subordinate to the Army at the time. This claim is hotly contested by Milutinović’s defense counsel and some constitutional lawyers, as the 1990 Constitution was written in view of Serbia possibly becoming a sovereign, unitary state, due to the impending collapse of Tito’s Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (which finally occurred in mid-1991). In reality, Serbia wasn't sovereign, as it still formed part of Milošević's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, whose President (Milošević) held the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces. In addition, according to the defense, the Supreme Defense Counsel wasn't exercising operational control over Yugoslav troops, neither de jure nor de facto.
The ICTY Prosecution also claims that Milutinović, as the President of Serbia, had de facto influence over the Parliament, the Army and the police (Ministry of Internal Affairs).
Milutinović was provisionally released in April 2005, still pending the trial.
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