Nikola Šainovic
Encyclopedia
Nikola Šainović born 7 December 1948 in Bor, Serbia
, Yugoslavia
) is a former Prime Minister of Serbia of Montenegrin descent. He is a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia
and in 2009 was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
in The Hague
for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against ethnic Albanian
civilians in 1999 in the Kosovo War
.
He graduated earning a Masters degree from the University of Ljubljana
in Slovenia
in 1977 as a Chemical Engineer. Soon afterwards he entered politics by becoming a member of the Serbian branch
of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
, which was in 1991 transformed into a real political party, the Socialist Party of Serbia
. From 1991 to 1993 he held the post of Deputy Prime Minister within the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
On 10 February 1993 he became President of a minority Government of the Republic of Serbia after the SPS won the largest number of votes on the 20 December 1992 parliamentary election
, with support from the Serbian Radical Party
. On 18 March 1994 he resigned from office to be appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 22 February 1994. He was reappointed FRY Deputy Prime Minister in 1996 under Radoje Kontić
of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro
after the 3 November 1996 parliamentary election
on which SPS won the largest number of votes for the Serbian seats in the Council of Citizens of the FRY Federal Assembly. He was reappointed on new sessions in 1997, and finally on 20 May 1998 under Momir Bulatović
of the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro
. He stayed on that post until the Bulldozer Revolution in October 2000 which sacked him.
He soon made greater inner-party progress. On 28 November 1995 he was elected by the SPS party members into the Executive Council of the Socialist Party of Serbia, as well as its Steering Committee, and on 2 March 1996 he was even elected party Vice-President, however wasn't reelected on 24 April 1997 for that party post.
FRY and SPS President Slobodan Milošević
entrusted Sainovic with representing him in 1998 with the Kosovo affairs, where inner-ethnic tensions escalated into a full-scale inter-state conflict
. Nikola presided over the "Commission of Cooperation with the Mission for Verification of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe" in Kosovo
from October 1998. He signed the "Clark-Naumman agreement" which mandated partial removal of FRY and Serbian forces from Kosovo and limitation of introduction of additional forces and equipment, as well as the deployment of unarmed OSCE verifiers. He was also a member of the Yugoslavian and Serbian delegation under Serbian President Milan Milutinovic
in the failed Rambouillet peace talks
with the Kosovo Albanian leaders from 7 February to mid-March 1999.
The ICTY indicted him in May 1999 for being responsible together with Slobodan Milošević
, Milan Milutinović
, Dragoljub Ojdanić
and Vlajko Stojiljković
in a joint criminal enterprise spreading widespread terror and violence upon the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo in the period from 1 January 1999 to 20 June 1999. After the Yugoslavian Federal Assembly passed the bill which permits extradition of its citizens to the Hague tribunal, his lawyers had contacted the authorities to discuss the possibilities of his surrender. Nikola Sainovic surrendered and was transferred to the ICTY on 2 May 2003. His trial began on 10 July 2006. On 26 February 2009, the ICTY sentenced Šainović to 22 years in prison, following a conviction for crimes against humanity and war crime
s, including deportations and forcible transfers, murders and other persecutions.
Bor, Serbia
Bor is a town and municipality located in eastern Serbia, with one of the largest copper mines in Europe and it has been a mining centre since 1904, when a French company began operations there. It is the administrative center of the Bor District of Serbia...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
) is a former Prime Minister of Serbia of Montenegrin descent. He is a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
and in 2009 was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against ethnic Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
civilians in 1999 in the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
.
He graduated earning a Masters degree from the University of Ljubljana
University of Ljubljana
The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...
in Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
in 1977 as a Chemical Engineer. Soon afterwards he entered politics by becoming a member of the Serbian branch
League of Communists of Serbia
The League of Communists of Serbia was the Serbian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990. Under a new constitution ratified in 1974, greater power was devolved to the various republic level branches. In the late 1980s, the party was...
of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia
League of Communists of Yugoslavia , before 1952 the Communist Party of Yugoslavia League of Communists of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Savez komunista Jugoslavije/Савез комуниста Југославије, Slovene: Zveza komunistov Jugoslavije, Macedonian: Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na...
, which was in 1991 transformed into a real political party, the Socialist Party of Serbia
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
. From 1991 to 1993 he held the post of Deputy Prime Minister within the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
On 10 February 1993 he became President of a minority Government of the Republic of Serbia after the SPS won the largest number of votes on the 20 December 1992 parliamentary election
Serbian parliamentary election, 1992
Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of Serbia on December 20, 1992. The vote was held only two years after the previous election, as it was necessitated by the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia the establishment of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,...
, with support from the Serbian Radical Party
Serbian Radical Party
The Serbian Radical Party is a far-right Serbian nationalist political party in Serbia, founded in 1991. Currently the second-largest party in the Serbian National Assembly, it has branches in three of the nations that currently border Serbia – all former federal republics of Yugoslavia...
. On 18 March 1994 he resigned from office to be appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 22 February 1994. He was reappointed FRY Deputy Prime Minister in 1996 under Radoje Kontić
Radoje Kontic
Radoje Kontić is a retired Montenegrin politician and technologist. He was the last Chairman of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro's Executive Council from 1989 to 1991 - a post which he obtained by riding the wave of the anti-bureaucratic putsch in Montenegro during January 1989...
of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro
Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro
The Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro is the ruling social-democratic political party in Montenegro....
after the 3 November 1996 parliamentary election
Yugoslavian parliamentary election, 1996
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia parliamentary election, 1996 were held in Yugoslavia on 3 November. Radoje Kontić, member of the Montenegrin ruling party, the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, was confirmed as Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
on which SPS won the largest number of votes for the Serbian seats in the Council of Citizens of the FRY Federal Assembly. He was reappointed on new sessions in 1997, and finally on 20 May 1998 under Momir Bulatović
Momir Bulatovic
Momir Bulatović , formerly served as a Yugoslavian and Montenegrin politician. Bulatović became federal President of Montenegro while Montenegro was part of a Yugoslav federation, and also Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
of the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro
Socialist People's Party of Montenegro
The Socialist People's Party of Montenegro is a socialist opposition political party in Montenegro. It has 16 MPs in the Parliament of Montenegro, which it won on the 2009 parliamentary election...
. He stayed on that post until the Bulldozer Revolution in October 2000 which sacked him.
He soon made greater inner-party progress. On 28 November 1995 he was elected by the SPS party members into the Executive Council of the Socialist Party of Serbia, as well as its Steering Committee, and on 2 March 1996 he was even elected party Vice-President, however wasn't reelected on 24 April 1997 for that party post.
FRY and SPS President Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
entrusted Sainovic with representing him in 1998 with the Kosovo affairs, where inner-ethnic tensions escalated into a full-scale inter-state conflict
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
. Nikola presided over the "Commission of Cooperation with the Mission for Verification of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe" in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
from October 1998. He signed the "Clark-Naumman agreement" which mandated partial removal of FRY and Serbian forces from Kosovo and limitation of introduction of additional forces and equipment, as well as the deployment of unarmed OSCE verifiers. He was also a member of the Yugoslavian and Serbian delegation under Serbian President Milan Milutinovic
Milan Milutinovic
Milan Milutinović is a former President of Serbia. He served as Director of the National Library of Serbia , Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to Greece, Yugoslavia's Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs , and as President of Serbia from 1997 until 2002.After his presidential term...
in the failed Rambouillet peace talks
Rambouillet Agreement
The Rambouillet Agreement is the name of a proposed peace agreement between then-Yugoslavia and a delegation representing the ethnic-Albanian majority population of Kosovo. It was drafted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and named for Chateau Rambouillet, where it was initially proposed...
with the Kosovo Albanian leaders from 7 February to mid-March 1999.
The ICTY indicted him in May 1999 for being responsible together with Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
, Milan Milutinović
Milan Milutinovic
Milan Milutinović is a former President of Serbia. He served as Director of the National Library of Serbia , Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to Greece, Yugoslavia's Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs , and as President of Serbia from 1997 until 2002.After his presidential term...
, Dragoljub Ojdanić
Dragoljub Ojdanic
Dragoljub Ojdanić was former Chief of the General Staff and Defence minister of Yugoslavia...
and Vlajko Stojiljković
Vlajko Stojiljkovic
Vlajko Stojiljkovic was Yugoslavia's Minister of Internal Affairs from 1997 until the deposal of Slobodan Milosevic....
in a joint criminal enterprise spreading widespread terror and violence upon the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo in the period from 1 January 1999 to 20 June 1999. After the Yugoslavian Federal Assembly passed the bill which permits extradition of its citizens to the Hague tribunal, his lawyers had contacted the authorities to discuss the possibilities of his surrender. Nikola Sainovic surrendered and was transferred to the ICTY on 2 May 2003. His trial began on 10 July 2006. On 26 February 2009, the ICTY sentenced Šainović to 22 years in prison, following a conviction for crimes against humanity and war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s, including deportations and forcible transfers, murders and other persecutions.
See also
- War crimes in the Kosovo WarWar crimes in the Kosovo WarThe War crimes in the Kosovo War were a series of war crimes committed during the Kosovo War . Yugoslav security forces invaded Kosovo and killed many Albanian civilians; there were also attacks on on Yugoslav security forces and moderate Albanians by the Kosovo Liberation Army...
- Operation HorseshoeOperation HorseshoeOperation Horseshoe is a name attributed to a large-scale antiterrorism campaign which during the NATO bombing escalated to ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians carried out by Serbian Police and Yugoslav Army during the Kosovo War....
- Joint Criminal EnterpriseJoint Criminal EnterpriseJoint criminal enterprise ' is a legal doctrine used by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to prosecute political and military leaders for mass war crimes, including genocide, committed during the Yugoslav wars 1991-1999....