| ? ?
Milosevie’s Death
?
?Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was found dead last Saturday in
his cell at the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia. The 64-year-old had been on trial there since February
2002.
? ?Born in provincial Pozarevac in 1941, he was the second
son of a priest and a school teacher, Both of his parents died when he was still
a young adult. The young Milosevic was "untypical", says Slavoljub Djukic, his
unofficial biographer. He was "not interested in sports, avoided excursions
(短途旅行) and used to come to school dressed in the old-fashioned way-white shirt
and tie. " One of his old friends said, he could "imagine him as a
station-master or punctilious (一丝不苟的) civil servant.
? ?Indeed that
is exactly what he might have become, had he not married Mira. She was widely
believed to be his driving force.
? ?At university and beyond he
did well. He worked for various firms and was a communist party member. By 1986
he was head of Serbia’s Central Committee. But still he had not yet really been
noticed.
? ?It was Kosovo that gave him his chance. An autonomous
province of Serbia, Kosovo was home to an Albanian majority and a Serbian
minority. In 1989, he was sent there to calm fears of Serbians who felt they
were discriminated against. But instead he played the nationalist card and
became their champion. In so doing, he changed into a ruthless (无情的) and
determined man. At home with Mira he plotted the downfall of his political
enemies. Conspiring(密谋) with the director of Serbian TV, he mounted a modern
media campaign which aimed to get him the most power in the country.
?
?He was elected Serbian president in 1990．In 1997, he became president of
Yugoslavia. The rest of the story is well-known: his nationalist card caused
Yugoslavia’s other ethnic groups to fight for their own rights, power and lands.
Yugoslavia broke up when four of the six republics declared independence in
1991．War started and lasted for years and millions died. Then Western countries
intervened. NATO bombed Yugoslavia, and he eventually stepped down as state
leader in 2000.
? ?Soon after this, Serbia’s new government, led by
Zoran Djindjic arrested him and sent him to face justice at the Yugoslav war
crimes tribunal in the Hague. |
单选集
