Serbia, as a constituent subject of the SFR Yugoslavia and later the FR Yugoslavia, was involved in the Yugoslav Wars, which took place between 1991 and 1999âÂÂthe war in Slovenia, the Croatian War of Independence, the Bosnian War, and Kosovo. From 1991 to 1997, Slobodan Miloà ¡eviàwas the President of Serbia. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has established that Miloà ¡eviàwas in control of Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia during the wars which were fought there from 1991 to 1995.
Accused of supporting Serb rebels in Croatia and Bosnia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was suspended from most international organisations and institutions, and economic and political sanctions were imposed, which resulted in an economic disaster and massive emigration from the country. The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War significantly damaged the country's infrastructure and economy. After the Yugoslav Wars, Serbia became home to the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons in Europe.
Various judicial proceedings at the ICTY have investigated the different levels of responsibility of the Yugoslav People's Army and the leadership of the FRY and Serbia for the war crimes that were committed by ethnic Serbs who lived in other republics of the former Yugoslavia, while the government of Serbia was tasked with apprehending numerous ethnic Serb fugitives for the Tribunal, with which it largely complied. Miloà ¡eviàbecame the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes.
Following Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's rise to power and the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars, numerous anti-war movements developed in Serbia. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 people deserted from the Yugoslav People's Army, while between 100,000 and 150,000 people emigrated from Serbia after refusing to participate in the war. Miloà ¡eviàregime's propaganda played a significant role in the wars.
After the defeat of Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's party at the 1996 local elections, the 1996âÂÂ97 anti-government protests, and the boycott of the 1997 election by the opposition due to irregular election conditions, the wide opposition alliance won the 2000 election. That led to the overthrow of Slobodan Miloà ¡eviÃÂ, resulting in the admission of the FR Yugoslavia United Nations membership, the arrest of Miloà ¡eviàand extradition to stand trial for war crimes.
The 1990 survey conducted among Yugoslav citizens showed that ethnic animosity existed on a small scale. Compared to the results from 25 years before, Serbia was one of the republic with the smallest increase in ethnic distance, which stayed at medium. There was significant increase of ethnic distance among Serbs and Montenegrins toward Croats and Slovenes and vice versa. Of all respondents, 71% of Serbs said that their affiliation with Yugoslavia is very important to them.
Miloà ¡eviàused a rigid control of the media to organize a propaganda campaign in which the thesis that Serbs were the victims and the need for readjust Yugoslavia to redress the alleged bias against Serbia. This then was then followed by Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's anti-bureaucratic revolution in which the governments of Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro were overthrown, which gave Miloà ¡eviàthe dominating position of 4 votes out of 8 in Yugoslavia's collective presidency.
The Constitution of Yugoslavia (1974 Constitution), in its Basic Principles, in the very beginning, stated "The peoples of Yugoslavia, starting from the right of every nation to self-determination, including the right to secession,...". The opinion of the Serb leadership of that time was that the internal borders of Yugoslavia were provisional. The basis for this statement was derived from the Constitution of Yugoslavia. President Slobodan Miloà ¡eviÃÂ, also the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia, had repeatedly stated that all Serbs should enjoy the right to be included in Serbia. Mihajlo MarkoviÃÂ, the Vice President of the Main Committee of Serbia's Socialist Party, rejected any solution that would make Serbs outside Serbia a minority. He proposed establishing a federation consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, BiH, Macedonia and Serbs residing in the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina, Slavonia, Baranja, and Srem.
Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991. Both were internationally recognized on 15 January 1992. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence on 5 March 1992. It was internationally recognized on 22 May 1992 by the United Nations. With the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro proclaimed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a sole successor state of SFR Yugoslavia, on 27 April 1992. It remained unrecognized during the conflict.
The Serbian media during the Miloà ¡eviàera was known to espouse Serb nationalism while promoting xenophobia toward the other ethnicities in Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians were commonly characterised in the media as anti-Yugoslav counter-revolutionaries, rapists, and a threat to the Serb nation. When war erupted in Croatia, Politika promoted Serb nationalism, hostility towards Croatia, and violence.
On 5 June 1991, Politika ekspres ran a piece titled "Serbs must get weapons". On 25 June 1991 and 3 July 1991, Politika began to openly promote partitioning Croatia, and prominently quoted Jovan Marjanoviàof the Serbian Renewal Movement, who said "The <nowiki>[Yugoslav]</nowiki> Army must come into Croatia and occupy the line Benkovac-Karlovac-Pakrac-Baranja". On 25 June 1991, Politika reminded Serbs about the atrocities perpetrated by the Croatian fascist Ustaà ¡e against Serbs during World War II; "Jasenovac [an Ustaà ¡e concentration camp in World War II] mustn't be forgotten".
Serbian state media during the wars featured controversial reportage that villainized the other ethnic factions. In one such program, a Croatian Serb woman denounced the old "communist policy" in Croatia, claiming that under it "[t]he majority of Serbs would be assimilated in ten years", while another interviewee stated "Where Serbian blood was shed by Ustasha knives, there will be our boundaries." Various Serbian state television reports featured Jovan Raà ¡koviÃÂ, who stated the Croatian people had a "genocidal nature".
The director of Radio Television of Serbia during Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's era, Duà ¡an MiteviÃÂ, later admitted, in a PBS documentary, that "the things that happened at state TV, warmongering, things we can admit to now: false information, biased reporting. That went directly from Miloà ¡eviàto the head of TV".
During the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, the concept of a Greater Serbia was widely seen outside of Serbia as the motivating force for the military campaigns undertaken to form and sustain Serbian states on the territories of the breakaway Yugoslav republics of Croatia (the Republic of Serbian Krajina) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Republika Srpska). The goal of the Republic of Serbia was to play the role of a central power left vacant by the fading federal state.
As early as June 1990, after the success of pro-independence forces in the referendums of Slovenia and Croatia, there was a meeting between Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslav Defence Minister General Veljko KadijeviÃÂ and Serb representative to the Yugoslav Presidency Borisav JoviÃÂ where they drew a plan by which Serbia would "throw Slovenia and Croatia out of Yugoslavia" through the use of force and occupy areas of Croatia where the Serbs were majority.
Miloà ¡eviàwanted to force a political deal with Slovene president Milan KuÃÂan; Serbia would recognize the right of the self-determination of the Slovene nation to independence if Slovenia in turn recognized the right of self-determination of the Serb nation to remain united with Serbia. Such a deal would have set a precedent for Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia to remain in one state with Serbia.
Immediately after the Slovenian independence referendum, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) announced a new defence doctrine that would apply across the country. The socialist doctrine of "General People's Defence", in which each republic maintained a Territorial Defence Force (TO), was to be replaced by a centrally-directed system of defence. The republics would lose their role in defence matters, and their TOs would be disarmed and subordinated to JNA headquarters in Belgrade. The Slovenian government resisted these moves, and successfully ensured that the majority of Slovenian Territorial Defence equipment was kept out of the hands of the JNA.
General Veljko Kadijeviàwas de facto commander of Yugoslav People's Army during the Slovenian Independence War. Kadijeviàadvocated for a show of force that would convince the Slovenian government to back down on its declaration of independence. After some debate, Kadijeviàgot his way. The officer corps was dominated by Serbs and Montenegrins. The rank and file troops however were conscripts, many who had no strong motivation in fighting against the Slovenes. Of the soldiers of the 5th Military District, which was in action in Slovenia, about 30% were Albanians. Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's government was not particularly concerned about Slovenia's independence, as there was no significant Serb minority in the country. On 30 June, Kadijeviàsuggested to the Yugoslav federal presidency to resume action on Slovenia with a massive attack to break down the unexpectedly heavy resistance. But Borisav JoviÃÂ, shocked the military establishment by declaring that Serbia did not support further use of force against Slovenia.
In April 1991, Serbs within the Republic of Croatia moved to secede from that territory, which itself seceded from Yugoslavia.
In May 1991, Stipe MesiÃÂ, a Croat, was scheduled to be the chairman of the rotating Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but Serbia blocked his installation, so this maneuver technically left Yugoslavia without a leader.
In various verdicts, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) concluded that Krajina presidents Milan Babiàand Milan Martiàwere cooperating with Serbia's president Miloà ¡eviàwho sent ammunition, financial assistance and the JNA and Serb paramilitary as back up during 1991 and 1992 in order to take over large chunks of Croatia. After the United Nations imposed sanctions against Serbia, the JNA formally withdrew from Croatia by May 1992. However, in the 2011 verdict regarding MomÃÂilo Perià ¡iÃÂ, the ICTY established that Belgrade was, through the 30th and 40th Personnel Centre, still supplying armies of Krajina and Republika Srpska all until 1995, despite international sanctions. In the judgement, the judges ruled that members of the Yugoslav Army served under banners of Serbian Army of Krajina (SVK) and VRS, but received pensions, salaries, benefits and promotions directly from Belgrade. Although Perià ¡iàdid not have effective control over the VRS, he had control of the SVK, but failed to sanction them for the Zagreb rocket attacks.
During the Bosnian war, it was a part of the strategic plan of the Serb leadership, which aimed to link Serb-populated areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to gain control over these areas and create a separate Serb state, from which most non-Serbs would be permanently removed. The Serb leadership was aware that its strategic plan could only be implemented by the use of force and fear, such as the commission of war crimes.
The Bosnian Serb Army was "under the overall control" of Belgrade and the Yugoslav Army, which meant that they had funded, equipped and assisted the coordination and planning of military operations. The Army of Republika Srpska arose from the Yugoslav army forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite sanctions, Belgrade was still the main source of soldiers, ammunition, spare parts and financial assistance for Republika Srpska until 1995.
Miloà ¡eviàrealized that Bosnia and Herzegovina was about to be recognized by the international community, and since Yugoslav Army troops were still located there at that time, their presence on Bosnian territory could have led to Serbia and Montenegro being accused of aggression. To avoid this, Miloà ¡eviàdecided to move all JNA soldiers who originated from Serbia and Montenegro back into Serbia and Montenegro, and move all JNA soldiers who originated from Bosnia and Herzegovina back into Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, every Bosnian Serb was transferred from the Yugoslav army to what became the newly created Bosnian Serb Army. Through this, the Bosnian Serb army received extensive military equipment and full funding from the FRY, because the Bosnian Serb faction could not cover the costs on its own.
The Bosnian Serb Army was led by Ratko MladiÃÂ, an extremely controversial figure, who served in the Yugoslav Army during the Croatian War of Independence 1991âÂÂ1992, and has been accused of committing war crimes in Bosnia.
On 24 March 2016, the ICTY issued its judgement in the separate case against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadà ¾iÃÂ, in which it concluded that insufficient evidence had been presented in that case to find that Slobodan Milosevic "agreed with the common plan" to create territories ethnically cleansed of non-Serbs during the Bosnian War of 1992 to 1995. The judgement noted "Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's repeated criticism and disapproval of the policies and decisions made by Karadà ¾iàand the Bosnian Serb leadership" and, in a footnote, the "apparent discord between Karadà ¾iàand Miloà ¡eviÃÂ" during which Miloà ¡evià"openly criticised Bosnian Serb leaders of committing 'crimes against humanity' and 'ethnic cleansing' and the war for their own purposes." Nevertheless, the court also noted that "Miloà ¡eviàprovided assistance in the form of personnel, provisions, and arms to the Bosnian Serbs during the conflict"
The Serbian Radical Party founder and paramilitary leader Vojislav Seselj publicly claimed that Miloà ¡eviàpersonally asked him to send paramilitaries from Serbia into Bosnia and Herzegovina. After 1993, media reports of large-scale atrocities by the Bosnian Serb armed forces, such as the long siege of Sarajevo, resulted in increased pressure and sanctions by western governments against Serbia and Montenegro to persuade Miloà ¡eviàto withdraw his support of the Bosnian Serbs. After 1993, Miloà ¡eviàabandoned his alliance with the Serbian Radical Party and declared that his government advocated a peaceful settlement to the war. The new coalition government abandoned its support of Radovan Karadà ¾iÃÂ's Bosnian Serb government and pressured the Bosnian Serbs to negotiate a peace treaty. During the Dayton Accord, Miloà ¡eviàsparred with Karadà ¾iÃÂ, who opposed the Dayton Accord, which Miloà ¡eviàsupported as it gave Bosnian Serbs autonomy and self-governance over most of the territories they had claimed. In 1995, Miloà ¡eviÃÂ, President of Serbia, represented the Bosnian Serbs during the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement.
In 1998, facing political crisis, Miloà ¡eviàagain formed a national-unity government with the Serbian Radical Party. After 1998, conflict in Kosovo intensified. The Yugoslav Army and the Serbian Police were in spring 1999. "in an organized manner, with significant use of state resources" conducted a broad campaign of violence against Albanian civilians in order to expel them from Kosovo and thus maintain political control of Belgrade over the province.
By June 1999, the Yugoslav military, Serbian police and paramilitaries expelled 862,979 Albanians from Kosovo, and several hundred thousand more were internally displaced, in addition to those displaced prior to March. Presiding Judge Iain Bonomy concluded that "deliberate actions of these forces during the campaign provoked the departure of at least 700,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo in the short period from late March to early June 1999".
Religious objects were also damaged or destroyed. Of the 498 mosques in Kosovo that were in active use, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) documented that 225 mosques sustained damage or destruction by the Yugoslav Serb army. In all, eighteen months of the Yugoslav Serb counterinsurgency campaign between 1998 and 1999 within Kosovo resulted in 225 or a third out of a total of 600 mosques being damaged, vandalised, or destroyed. During the war, Islamic architectural heritage posed for Yugoslav Serb paramilitary and military forces as Albanian patrimony with destruction of non-Serbian architectural and cultural heritage being a methodical and planned component of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
Numerous war crimes were committed by Serbian military and Serbian paramilitary forces during the Yugoslav Wars. The crimes included massacres, ethnic cleansing, systematic rape, crimes against humanity. The International Court of Justice, cleared the Republic of Serbia of direct involvement in genocide, but found that it had failed to prevent mass killings, rapes, and ethnic cleansing.
The war crimes were usually carried out on ethnic and religious grounds and were primarily directed against civilians (Albanians, Croats and Bosniaks). Several United Nations bodies have judged that the aim of these war crimes in various wars was to create an ethnically pure Serbian state, or "Greater Serbia", encompassing Serbia as well as the Serb-populated areas in former Yugoslavia.
After the wars in the 1990s, many senior military and political leaders were convicted of war crimes; Radovan Karadà ¾iàwas arrested in Belgrade in 2008, was tried and found guilty of war crimes in March 2016, and sentenced to 40 years in prison (the sentence was increased in 2019 to life imprisonment upon the rejection of his appeal). Others, including Ratko Mladiàand Goran Hadà ¾iÃÂ, were not apprehended by Serbian authorities until 2011.
Hadà ¾iàdied while awaiting trial in July 2016. Mladiàreceived life imprisonment. According to the definition of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Serbian forces included the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), Serb Territorial Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, the Serbian Army of Krajina, the Army of Republika Srpska, territorial defense of Serbia and Montenegro, Police of Serbia and Police of Republika Srpska, including national security, special police forces of Krajina known as MartiÃÂevci (after Milan MartiÃÂ), as well as all Serbian paramilitary forces and volunteer units.
The Tribunal claimed that around 170,000 Croats were expelled from territories Serbian forces sought to control. Rebel Croatian Serbs' forces together with Serbian military and paramilitary forces committed numerous war crimes and massacres in the Republic of Croatia.
There were also prison camps, where several hundred Croatian prisoners of war and civilians were kept by Serbian authorities such as the Begejci camp, Sremska Mitrovica camp, StajiÃÂevo camp and Velepromet camp which was located on the southern outskirts of the city of Vukovar, Croatia.
According to the Croatian Association of Prisoners in Serbian Concentration Camps, a total of 8,000 Croatian civilians and POWs (many following the fall of Vukovar) went through Serb prison camps such as Sremska Mitrovica camp, StajiÃÂevo camp, Nià ¡ camp and many others where many were heavily abused and tortured. A total of 300 people never returned from them. A total of 4570 camp inmates have started legal action against the former Republic of Serbia and Montenegro (now Serbia) for torture and abuse in the camps.
In 1990s, during the war in Croatia in persecution of Croats in Serbia during Yugoslav Wars was organized and participated in the expulsion of the Croats in some places in Vojvodina.
According to Croatia's lawsuit against Yugoslavia (later the Republic of Serbia) in front of the International Court of Justice, 590 cities and villages were damaged and 35 entirely razed to the ground, three national parks, five natural parks and 19 park cultural monuments were damaged while 171,000 housing units (about 10 percent of the entire housing capacity of the country) were destroyed or damaged in Croatia during the war. About three million landmines were left by the warring factions that blocked about 300,000 hectares of arable land.
In its verdict against Ante Gotovina, the ICTY for the first time also concluded that the war in Croatia constituted an international armed conflict as the Serbian Army of Krajina acted as an extension to Serbia's military.
Serbian paramilitary forces and Army of the Republika Srpska committed numerous war crimes against Bosnian civilian population during the Bosnian War.
There were several concentration and prison camps in Bosnia, run by Bosnian Serbs such as the Omarska camp, Keraterm camp, ManjaÃÂa camp, Trnopolje camp, Uzamnica camp and Vilina Vlas.
The International Court of Justice confirmed the ICTY judgment that the Srebrenica massacre was genocide:
It cleared Republic of Serbia of direct involvement in genocide during the Bosnian war, but ruled that Belgrade did breach international law by failing to prevent the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
In the spring of 1999, the Serbian police and the Yugoslav Army were "in an organized manner, with significant use of state resources" conducting a broad campaign of violence against Albanian civilians in order to expel them from Kosovo and thus maintain political control of Belgrade over the province.
According to the legally binding verdict of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Federal Army and Serbian police after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia 24 March 1999, systematically attacked villages with Albanian population, abused, robbed and killed civilians, ordering them to go to Albania or Montenegro, burning their houses and by destroying their property. Within the campaign of violence, Albanians were mass expelled from their homes, murdered, sexually assaulted, and their religious buildings destroyed. Serbian forces committed numerous war crimes during the implementation of "joint criminal enterprise" whose aim was to "through the use of violence and terror, force a significant number of Kosovo Albanians to leave their homes, across the border, the state government to retain control over Kosovo". Ethnic cleansing of the Albanian population is performed by the following model: first the army surrounded a place, then followed the shelling, then the police entered the village, and often with them and the army, and then crimes occurs (murders, rapes, beatings, expulsions ... ).
Presiding Judge Iain Bonomy was imposing sentence said, "deliberate actions of these forces during the campaign provoked the departure of at least 700,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo in the short period from late March to early June 1999."
The following is an incomplete list of massacres attributed to Serb forces:
Goran StopariÃÂ, an ex-member of the Special Anti-terrorist Unit (SAJ), speculating about motives behind the Podujevo massacre, stated:
The International Court of Justice treated all violent conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia until 7 October 1991 as internal clashes or civil war. But after that date, all conflicts, especially armed confrontations and human victims, are international armed conflicts. Republic of Serbia officially denied any military engagement into Bosnian War and Croatian War for Independence. However, many Serbian political, military and paramilitary leaders (including Slobodan Miloà ¡eviÃÂ, Vojislav à  eà ¡elj, Jovica Stanià ¡iÃÂ, Franko SimatoviÃÂ, Veljko KadijeviÃÂ, Blagoje Adà ¾iàand à ½eljko Raà ¾natoviÃÂ) were accused of war crimes committed in Bosnia and Croatia. According to Prosecution, those leaders participated in a joint criminal enterprise aimed to established "Greater Serbia" from the disintegrating Yugoslavia.
Complicity in a joint criminal enterprise also included "Serbian forces", that includes the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), later the Yugoslav Army (VJ), the newly formed Serbian Territorial Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, Republic of Serbian Krajina Army, the Army of the Republika Srpska, territorial defense of Serbia and Montenegro, the police of Serbia and the police of Republika Srpska, including national security, special police forces of the Krajina region known as "MartiÃÂevci, as well as all Serbian paramilitary forces and volunteer units.
Slobodan Miloà ¡eviÃÂ, along with Milan MilutinoviÃÂ, Nikola à  ainoviÃÂ, Dragoljub Ojdaniàand Vlajko Stojiljkoviàwere charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with crimes against humanity including murder, forcible transfer, deportation and "persecution on political, racial or religious grounds" during the Kosovo War. Miloà ¡eviàbecame the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes. Further indictments were leveled in October 2003 against former armed forces chief of staff Nebojà ¡a PavkoviÃÂ, former army corps commander Vladimir LazareviÃÂ, former police official Vlastimir ÃÂorÃÂeviàand the current head of Serbia's public security, Sreten LukiÃÂ. All were indicted for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. Tribunal prosecutor's office has accused Milosevic of "the gravest violations of human rights in Europe since the Second World War". Miloà ¡eviàdied in detention before he could be sentenced.
The Court pronounced the following verdict for war crimes in Kosovo:
à  ainoviÃÂ, Pavkoviàand Lukiàwere convicted as members of the joint criminal enterprise, while others are convicted of aiding and abetting crimes.
The democratic leadership of Serbia recognized the need to investigate Serbian war crimes after the fall of Miloà ¡eviÃÂ, and a special war crimes tribunal was founded in Belgrade in 2003, after the Parliament of Serbia passed the Law on Organization and Competence of State Bodies in the Proceedings Against War Crimes Perpetrators.
Since then, the special prosecutor has prosecuted and the court has convicted several individuals for instances of war crimes, also committed under the command of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs and other state agencies.
Despite the ICTY finding, confirmed by the ICJ, a range of alternative views of the Srebrenica massacre exist, most of which argue that fewer than 8,000 were killed. The denial of the figure points out that fewer names were listed, that some were not even killed in that area and had died in previous years, in some cases people turned out to be alive, etc. Sonja Biserko of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia notes:
According to Human Rights Watch, the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party "launched an aggressive campaign to prove that Muslims had committed crimes against thousands of Serbs in the area", which "was intended to diminish the significance of the July 1995 crime". The ICTY Office of the Prosecutor noted that the number of Serb deaths in the region alleged by the Serbian authorities had increased from 1400 to 3500, a figure the Prosecutor stated "[does] not reflect the reality". Personal details were only available for 624 victims. The validity of labeling some of the casualties as "victims" is also contested â studies have found a significant majority of military casualties as compared to civilian casualties.
The Serbian police denied perpetrating the Drenica massacres in FebruaryâÂÂMarch 1998 and claimed they were just pursuing "terrorists" who had attacked the police. A police spokesman denied the "lies and inventions" about indiscriminate attacks and excessive force and said "the police has never resorted to such methods and never will." Belgrade government also denied responsibility for VuÃÂitrn and Gornje Obrinje massacre on 26 September 1998. President Slobodan Milosevic has denied a policy of ethnic cleansing during the NATO bombing in Kosovo 1999, but the Court latter found that Serbian state conducted systematic campaign of terror and violence against Kosovo Albanians in order to expel them from Kosovo.
Many Croats of Serbia suffered persecution during the Yugoslav Wars, escalating with the 1992 expulsions in Hrtkovci for which Vojislav à  eà ¡elj was charged by the ICTY.
The high number of casualties incurred in the Battle of Vukovar caused serious popular discontent in Serbia and Montenegro, where tens of thousands of those receiving draft papers went into hiding or left the country. A near-mutiny broke out in some reservist units, and mass demonstrations against the war were held in the Serbian towns of Valjevo, ÃÂaÃÂak and Kragujevac. In one famous incident, a tank driver named Vladimir à ½ivkoviàdrove his tank all the way from the front line at Vukovar to the federal parliament in Belgrade. Many Serbs did not identify with the Croatian Serb cause and were unwilling to see their lives, or those of their children, sacrificed at Vukovar.
Following the end of Yugoslav Wars, Serbian war crimes court sparked controversy on at least four occasions after issuing indictments and arrest warrants against non-Serbs that were later found to be lacking substance. These indictments against foreign citizens of Serbia are perceived by some as key to redressing the "aggressor-victim" balance in the wars.
In Serbia, many people deny war crimes imputed to Serbia or the Serb people. Some public figures who are known for speaking openly about crimes committed by Serbs are labeled as a "traitors".
A study conducted in the Greater Toronto Area, involving the University of Toronto, regarding Posttraumatic stress disorder, found symptoms of PTSD in 26.3% of Serbian children due to war-related stress or during the Kosovo conflict.
At the conclusion of the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, numerous Serbs relocated to Serbia and Montenegro. By 1996, Serbia and Montenegro hosted about 300,000 registered refugees from Croatia and 250,000 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, while an additional 15,000 persons from Macedonia and Slovenia were also registered as refugees. The UNHCR registered 566,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia in Serbia and Montenegro. During the first half of 1996, more than 40,000 Bosnian Serbs arrived in the FRY. About three quarters had left suburbs of Sarajevo that were to fall under the control of the Bosnian Federation. Following the Kosovo war, 200,000 to 245,000 Serb, Roma, Ashkali, Albanian and Egyptian people fled into Serbia proper or within Kosovo, fearing revenge, and due to severe violence and terrorist attacks against mostly Serbian civilians after the war amounting to about 700,000 displaced or refugees in that country. One out of every eleven people was either a refugees or displacee in Serbia by 1999. This made that country became home to highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons in Europe.
Following the rise of nationalism and political tensions after Slobodan Miloà ¡eviàcame to power, as well as the outbreaks of the Yugoslav Wars, numerous anti-war movements developed in Serbia. The anti-war protests in Belgrade were held mostly because of opposition the Siege of Vukovar, Siege of Dubrovnik and Siege of Sarajevo, while protesters demanded the referendum on a declaration of war and disruption of military conscription.
More than 50,000 people participated in many protests, and more than 150,000 people took part in the most massive protest called "The Black Ribbon March" in solidarity with people in Sarajevo. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 people deserted from the Yugoslav People's Army, while between 100,000 and 150,000 people emigrated from Serbia refusing to participate in the war.
According to professor Renaud De la Brosse, senior lecturer at the University of Reims and a witness called by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it is surprising how great the resistance to Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's propaganda was among Serbs, given that and the lack of access to alternative news. Political scientists Orli Fridman described that not enough attention was given to anti-war activism among scholars studying the breakup of Yugoslavia and the wars, as well as that independent media and anti-war groups from Serbia did not attract the international attention.
After the defeat of Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's party at the 1996 Serbian local elections and attempting electoral fraud, several months of anti-government protests took place and the opposition boycotted the following 1997 Serbian general election. The wide opposition alliance won the 2000 Yugoslavian general election, which led to the overthrow of Slobodan Miloà ¡eviÃÂ. That resulted in the withdrawn of international sanctions and admission of the FR Yugoslavia into the United Nations. In June 2001, the reformist government of Zoran ÃÂinÃÂiàarrested Miloà ¡eviàand extradited him over to the ICTY, where the war crimes trial began