The definitive account of the rise to power and rule of one of the most notorious figures in recent European history. Reveals how Western business interests shored up Milosevic's regime until the late 1990s and how Western intelligence agencies were implicated in his downfall.
This biography of Slobodan Milosevic, currently on trial at The Hague for crimes against humanity, could not be more timely. It will be the first detailed account of the man who started three wars, whose rhetoric whipped up Serb nationalism to a pitch where ethnic cleansing became an instrument of policy, and yet who retained for a decade the ability to wrap the "international community" round his little finger.
The book gives the inside story of Milosevic's childhood, his marriage to Mira (known as the Red Witch and Lady Macbeth of Belgrade), his rise to power, the looted money (estimated at some $4 billion), the ascendancy of crime over politics (personified in his son Marko's antics), his relationships with key figures like Radovan Karadzic and Franjo Tujman, not to mention the many western diplomats, politicians and businessmen with whom he dealt for more than 10 years, and finally the story of his fall from power and trial.