From 1991 to 1999, Slobodan Milosevic launched and ultimately lost four Balkan wars, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions. He saw himself as a modern day Abraham Lincoln, employing force in a valiant effort to hold his crumbling Yugoslavia together. But his tactics included systematic war crimes and ethnic cleansing, ultimately prompting the US and its NATO allies to launch a controversial military intervention in the spring of 1999 to halt the bloodshed. Written while Milosevic sat in a tiny jail cell in The Hague, awaiting the start of his trial before the UN-created International War Crimes Tribunal, this book is designed for anyone who wants to know more about the historic, unprecedented and complex trial of the first former head of state ever to face international justice.

Author Biography

Michael Scharf is the author of seven books, including Balkan Justice (nominated for a Pulitzer in 1998) and The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (named the outstanding book in international law in 1999). Bill Schabas has been Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland since 2000. He has served on human rights missions to Rwanda, Burundi, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Cambodia.