Former Serbian President MIlan Milutinovic dies at 81

2023-07-03 03:04:50

Former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic passed away this Sunday at the age of 81as reported by the Serbian Foreign Minister, Ivica Dacic, on his Instagram account.

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conveyed his condolences for the death of the former leader, maintaining that he was a “man with devotion, seriousness and great dedication” who “he performed some of the most responsible duties in difficult times and historical trials” for the country.

“As a witness and direct participant in the turning points at which the fate and future of Serbia was decided, Milan Milutinovic dignified and consistently defended the interests of the State and the principles of International Law and justice, despite unprecedented pressures,” he indicated, according to the RTS chain.

Likewise, he has emphasized that the former president defended Serbia “honourably and vigorously” against “unfair” accusations before prosecutors in The Hague, taking into account the interests and well-being of the country. “The people will remember him as a patriot, who lived for Serbia to return to its rightful place,” Vucic said.

For his part, the President of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, has sent a message of condolences to Vucic, the Serbian citizens and the family of the deceased: “I was deeply moved by the news of the death of Milan Milutinovicthe former president of Serbia who led and fought for Serbia in the most difficult times and a great fighter for the truth,” reads the message collected by the Tanjug news agency.

Milutinovic was President of Serbia from December 1997 to December 2002, at which time voluntarily surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and where he was accused of war crimes during the conflict against Kosovo.

Despite the fact that the former president was acquitted in 2009, the other five former senior government, military and police officials with whom he shared a trial were sentenced to prison terms of between 15 and 22 years in prison for the murder and deportation of Kosovar Albanians in the first half of 1999.

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Milutinovic became President of Serbia in December 1997, replacing Slobodan Milosevic, who had just been appointed president of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). He held office until December 2002, although since 2000, after Milosevic’s overthrow and fall from grace, he was forced to “cohabit” with a government clearly opposed to his former mentor, which earned him the animosity of Milosevic’s supporters. , without reaching a definitive break.

The first leader indicted for the crimes in Kosovo was Milosevic himselfalthough he only had time to prosecute him between 2002 and 2006 for the crimes committed in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1991 and 1995, before he died “of natural causes on the eve of the end of the trial and before a verdict was delivered,” according to the court.