Vojislav Šešelj
Encyclopedia
Vojislav Šešelj, JD
(Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Шешељ, ˈvɔjislav ˈʃɛʃɛʎ) (born 11 October 1954, Sarajevo
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
, then Yugoslavia
) is a Serbian politician
, writer
and lawyer
. He is the founder and president of the Serbian Radical Party
and was vice-president of Serbia between 1998 and 2000. He is a member of the Serbian parliament, serving since 1992.
Šešelj is on trial for alleged war crimes and is suspected of being involved in crimes against humanity
by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY). He surrendered voluntarily in February 2003. His trial began four years later in November 2007.
In February 2009, the prosecution had presented 71 witnesses against Šešelj. With seven hours left in the prosecution, his trial was suspended because of alleged witness intimidation. The trial was resumed on 12 January 2009, and Šešelj does not plan to call any witnesses in his defense, stating that there is no need since the prosecution has not presented a single worthy witness. On 24 July 2009, he was sentenced to a further 15 months in custody for disrespecting the court.
As of October 2011 the trial was still under way and Šešelj has spent a total of almost nine years in custody. Of all ICTY indictees, Šešelj spent the longest time without a verdict being delivered. This is partly due to a hunger strike, his decision to not appear for his opening statement (he was self represented), and the aforementioned witness intimidation. In September 2011, the ICTY rejected Šešelj’s bid to have his long-running trial discontinued. In his submission to the court, Šešelj stated that his right to be tried in a reasonable amount of time has been violated, and called the current situation “incomprehensible, scandalous and inappropriate”. However, the bench found that “there is no predetermined threshold with regard to the time period beyond which a trial may be considered unfair on account of undue delay” and also argued that Šešelj “failed to provide concrete proof of abuse of process”.
, PR Bosnia-Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia, to an ethnic Serb
family from Popovo Valley
in the eastern Herzegovina
(father Nikola Šešelj and mother Danica Misita). The family lived near the old Sarajevo train station before they moved to Hrasno
neighbourhood. Šešelj's father worked on the railways and died during Šešelj's early youth; he and his sister Dragica were raised by their mother.
Šešelj attended First Sarajevo Gymnasium with excellent grades. While there, at the age of 17, he took an offer to join the Communist League
(SKJ), which was extended to him as a result of the exceptional effort shown at one of the workers' actions in Banja Luka
that were organized in the years following the devastating 1969 earthquake that hit the city. He was also involved with various student organizations in school as the president of the gymnasium's student union and later as the president of its youth committee. Even during his gymnasium days, Šešelj demonstrated his argumentative side and had frequent altercations with school principal Blanka Popović and municipal youth committee president Boban Jakovljević over what he saw to be discrepancies between proclaimed theory and the practical implementation of various initiatives. During these disagreements, Šešelj still stayed within the parameters of communist ideology.
After gymnasium, Šešelj enrolled at the University of Sarajevo
's Faculty of Law, where he completed his undergraduate studies in two years and eight months. Though short, his time at Sarajevo University was eventful as he openly criticized dean candidate Fuad Muhić, publicly proclaiming him unfit to perform the duties of that position.
Immediately after graduation in mid 1976, Šešelj continued with graduate studies by enrolling at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law
, where he earned a masters degree in June 1978 with a masters thesis titled The Marxist Concept of an Armed People. On 26 November 1979 he obtained a doctorate at the same university after successfully defending his dissertation (doctoral thesis) titled The Political Essence of Militarism and Fascism, which made him the youngest PhD
holder in Yugoslavia at only 25 years of age.
While still pursuing his Ph.D., Šešelj applied for a position as assistant lecturer at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Law, but instead was hired by the Faculty of Political Sciences at the same university. In December 1979 he joined the Yugoslav People's Army
to serve the mandatory military service and was stationed in Belgrade. He left the army in November 1980, but in the meantime he had lost his position at the university.
and nationalists.
magazine. Furthermore, in the literary journal Književna reč, Šešelj continued to criticize Muslim university professors (Atif Purivatra, Hasan Sušić and Muhamed Filipović) for having harmed his professional career. He further reproached them for taking part in an international conference in Madrid
that focused on Muammar al-Gaddafi
's Green Book. Šešelj considered the views that these intellectuals expressed in their contributions to the said conference as "pan-Islamist".
. Protege of Hamdija Pozderac
and Branko Mikulić
(SR Bosnia-Herzegovina
's highest and most powerful political figures at the time), Miljuš was well positioned within the communist apparatus as the secretary of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Communist League
's Sarajevo branch. Šešelj dissected Miljuš's masters degree thesis and accused him of plagiarizing more than 40 pages in it from the published works of Karl Marx
and Edvard Kardelj
. Šešelj's criticism didn't end there, as he went after even the highest political echelons in the republic, particularly Pozderac who was the reviewer of Miljuš's masters degree thesis. As a result, a bitter and protracted power struggle spilled outside the faculty and into the political institutions and corridors of power. Other faculty members and intellectuals to offer their support to Šešelj were Boro Gojković, Džemal Sokolović, Hidajet Repovac, Momir Zeković, Ina Ovadija-Musafija, etc. Still, the Pozderac side was much stronger and the whole thing ended with Šešelj being expelled from the Communist League on 4 December 1981.
Around this time Šešelj became very critical of the way that the national question was dealt with in Yugoslavia: he spoke out in favour of the use of force against Kosovo Albanians and denounced the passivity of the Serbian political leadership in handling the Kosovo crisis. In his view, the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina were not a nation but a religious group. He expressed his fear of seeing Bosnia and Herzegovina turn into a republic dominated by Muslims.
Šešelj also began to be followed and spied on by UDBA
(Yugoslav state security) agents. His first arrest took place on 8 February 1984, the second day of the Sarajevo Olympics
. He was on a train from Sarajevo heading to Belgrade when the secret police burst on board around Podlugovi
station and seized some of his writings that he had in the suitcase. Among the agents handling his arrest that day was Dragan Kijac (later Republika Srpska
state security chief). In Doboj
, Šešelj was taken off the train, transferred into a police Mercedes, and transported to Belgrade where he was questioned for 27 hours straight before being let go and informed that he would be contacted again. After getting back to Sarajevo, UDBA took him in twice more for questionings, which were handled by Rašid Musić and Milan Krnjajić. According to Šešelj, they had the transcripts of the various conversations he had with some of his closest friends in which they openly criticized everything from specific political figures to communist regime in general:
On 20 April 1984, he was arrested at a private apartment in Belgrade among the group of 28 individuals during the lecture given by Milovan Đilas as part of Free University, a semi-clandestine organization that gathered intellectuals critical of the communist regime. In total Šešelj spent 4 days behind bars on that occasion before being let go.
, Slovene representative in Yugoslav Presidency and the all-powerful longtime state security chief, gave an interview to TV Belgrade, explicitly going after Šešelj for his unpublished manuscript Odgovori na anketu-intervju: Šta da se radi? in which he calls for "reorganization of the Yugoslav federalism, SFR Yugoslavia with only four constituent republics (Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia), abolishing of the single-party system, and the abolishing of artificial nationalities". Two days later, on 15 May 1984, Šešelj was arrested again in Sarajevo. This time, as soon as he got to prison, he began a hunger strike
that lasted 48 days, which got the foreign press interested in his case:
On 9 July 1984, he was given an eight-year sentence in prison. The verdict delivered by presiding judge Milorad Potparić concluded that Šešelj "acted from the anarcho
-liberal
and nationalist
platform thereby committing the criminal act of counterrevolutionary endangerment of the social order". The single most incriminating piece of evidence cited by the court was the unpublished manuscript that the secret police found in Šešelj's home. On appeal, the Supreme Court of SFR Yugoslavia reduced the sentence to six years, then to four, and finally two. Up until his sentencing, Šešelj taught political science
at the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor, and later in Sarajevo.
Šešelj served the first eight months of his sentence in Sarajevo and the last fourteen in Zenica prison
before getting released in 1986 – two months early due to continuous pressure, protests and petitions by intellectuals throughout Yugoslavia (many of whom were later his bitter political opponents). In total, Šešelj spent 22 months in prison, six of which were spent in solitary confinement
.
).
In a 1983 interview for Omladinske novine when asked what his ethnicity, he replied that he was a Yugoslav
.
where Momčilo Đujić, a Chetnik leader from World War II
living there in exile, bestowed on Šešelj the title Vojvoda (duke) of the Chetniks
, to make a "unitary Serbian state where all Serbs would live, occupying all the Serb lands". Together with Vuk Drašković
and Mirko Jović
, Šešelj founded the anti-communist Serbian National Renewal (SNO) party in 1989. Šešelj later split off the SNO party to form the Serbian Radical Party
(SRS), thus forming the Chetniks under his command.
Šešelj reportedly boasted in June 1991, shortly before Slovenia and Croatia unilaterally declared independence from Yugoslavia, with the aim of suppressing their secession from Yugoslavia, that his paramilitary forces would not kill Croats with knives, but would gouge out their eyes with rusty spoons so that they would die of tetanus
. The statement raised a lot of controversy. The actual quote he delivered on Minimaksovizija talk show that aired on TV Politika
was: "As far as this talk of slaughter is concerned... we're now slaughtering with rusty shoehorns so that the autopsy can't determine whether the victim died of the physical wounds or of tetanus".
In the elections of December 1992, the SRS won 27 percent of the vote versus the 40 percent won by the Socialist Party
of President Slobodan Milošević
. His relationship with Milošević was amicable during the first years of the Yugoslav Wars. In September 1993, the two leaders came into conflict over Milošević's withdrawal of support for Republika Srpska
in the Bosnian War
, and Milošević described Šešelj as "the personification of violence and primitivism". Šešelj landed in jail again in 1994 and 1995 for his opposition to Milošević. In 1998 as violence in the Serbian province of Kosovo
increased, Šešelj joined Milošević’s national unity government
, siding briefly with the pro-Milošević government.
In July 1997, Šešelj was a guest on BKTV's Tête-à-tête talk duel programme with lawyer Nikola Barović as the other duelist. The duel quickly denegerated into an emotional exchange of verbal antagonism and ad hominem attacks that culminated in Barović pouring water on Šešelj. Sometime later Barović was physically assaulted and beaten up by Šešelj's security detail. Asked to comment Šešelj cynically stated that Barović slipped on a banana peel and tumbled down the flight of stairs.
Šešelj objected to foreign media and human rights organizations acting in Yugoslavia, saying:
He became vice-president of the Serbian government between 1998 and 2000. During the Kosovo War
and the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, he and his political party were willing to support Milošević, but after three months of bombardment they were the only party to vote against the withdrawal of Serbian security forces from Kosovo
.
". In 2005 Šešelj made headlines when he was asked to read a letter which he earlier sent to the ICTY that stated his contempt for the court. The letter was read in front of cameras by Šešelj and contained copious amounts of insults and expletives aimed at the top Tribunal officials and judges. In his letter, Šešelj said that the presiding judge has only "the right" (mocking the Hague's judges) to perform oral sex on him, and he referred to Carla Del Ponte as "the prostitute". Recordings of this statement have been aired many times in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While in custody, he wrote „Kriminalac i ratni zločinac Havijer Solana” (“Felon and War Criminal Javier Solana
”), a criticism of the NATO Secretary General
(and the current High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Secretary-General
of both the Council
of the European Union
and the Western European Union
) who led the 1999 war in Kosovo.
On 2 December 2006, about 40,000 people marched in the Serbian capital, Belgrade
, in support of Šešelj during his 28-day hunger strike
in The Hague - after the ICTY denied him the right to choose his own defence counsel. Speaking at the rally, Radical Party secretary Aleksandar Vučić
said "He's not fighting just for his life. But he's fighting for all of us who are gathered here. Vojislav Šešelj is fighting for Serbia!" Šešelj ended the hunger strike on 8 December after being allowed to present his own defence.
Although in custody in The Hague, Šešelj led his party's list of contenders for the January 2007 general election
.
Under the ICTY indictment, Šešelj is charged with 15 counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs or war. The first of these charges is for persecution of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serbs in Vukovar
, Šamac, Zvornik
and the Vojvodina
. The other charges include murder, forced deportation, illegal imprisonment, torture and property destruction during the Yugoslav wars
.
On 11 February 2009, after 71 witnesses had already been heard and with the expected conclusion of the prosecution's case just seven hours away, the presiding judges suspended Šešelj’s trial indefinitely at the prosecutors’ request. The prosecutors alleged that witnesses were being intimidated. Šešelj claimed that the true motive of the prosecutors was that they were losing their case. He claimed the court had presented numerous false witnesses to avoid having to acquit him and said it should pay him damages for "all the suffering and six years spent in detention". One of the three judges voted against the suspension of the trial stating that it was “unfair to interrupt the trial of someone who has spent almost six years in detention”.
A contempt of court case against Šešelj was opened for having revealed, in a book he had written, the identities of three witnesses whose names had been ordered suppressed by the tribunal, and for this he was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment by the International Criminal Court.
On 25 November 2009, it was announced that Šešelj's trial would continue on 12 January 2010. The trial resumed on schedule and continued until 17 March 2010.
On 10 March 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that Šešelj is scheduled to appear in court on 20 April 2010 for contempt of court for allegedly disclosing court restricted information on 11 protected witnesses. This is his second time he has been charged with contempt. In July 2009 he was found guilty of contempt on similar charges involving two protected witnesses and was sentenced to 15 months in jail.
On 17 March 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that "The trial of Vojislav Šešelj has been adjourned until further notice, pending checks on the health status of the remaining four Chamber witnesses". In the weekly ICTY briefing on 24 March stated "The trial of Vojislav Šešelj is expected to continue on Tuesday at 14:15 in Courtroom I with the testimony of one of the four remaining Trial Chamber witnesses".
On 14 April 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that with only one witness still to be heard, on the 30 March 2010 Šešelj trial was adjourned until further notice but was likely to resume in May 2010, after Šešelj's second contempt proceeding initiated against him by the Tribunal have ended.
Due to health problems, he has had an operation at the ICTY of his heart.
Among them are:
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
(Serbian Cyrillic: Војислав Шешељ, ˈvɔjislav ˈʃɛʃɛʎ) (born 11 October 1954, Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, then 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 Serbian politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. He is the founder and president of 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...
and was vice-president of Serbia between 1998 and 2000. He is a member of the Serbian parliament, serving since 1992.
Šešelj is on trial for alleged war crimes and is suspected of being involved in crimes against humanity
Crime against humanity
Crimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
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...
(ICTY). He surrendered voluntarily in February 2003. His trial began four years later in November 2007.
In February 2009, the prosecution had presented 71 witnesses against Šešelj. With seven hours left in the prosecution, his trial was suspended because of alleged witness intimidation. The trial was resumed on 12 January 2009, and Šešelj does not plan to call any witnesses in his defense, stating that there is no need since the prosecution has not presented a single worthy witness. On 24 July 2009, he was sentenced to a further 15 months in custody for disrespecting the court.
As of October 2011 the trial was still under way and Šešelj has spent a total of almost nine years in custody. Of all ICTY indictees, Šešelj spent the longest time without a verdict being delivered. This is partly due to a hunger strike, his decision to not appear for his opening statement (he was self represented), and the aforementioned witness intimidation. In September 2011, the ICTY rejected Šešelj’s bid to have his long-running trial discontinued. In his submission to the court, Šešelj stated that his right to be tried in a reasonable amount of time has been violated, and called the current situation “incomprehensible, scandalous and inappropriate”. However, the bench found that “there is no predetermined threshold with regard to the time period beyond which a trial may be considered unfair on account of undue delay” and also argued that Šešelj “failed to provide concrete proof of abuse of process”.
Early life
Vojislav Šešelj was born in SarajevoSarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, PR Bosnia-Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia, to an ethnic Serb
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
family from Popovo Valley
Popovo Valley
Popovo Polje is a valley in Herzegovina, famous for its karst landscape. The Trebišnjica River flows through the valley. To the south of the valley is the Vjetrenica cave system, the reaches cave fauna places at all.-See also:* Livanjsko field* Trebišnjica...
in the eastern Herzegovina
Herzegovina
Herzegovina is the southern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. While there is no official border distinguishing it from the Bosnian region, it is generally accepted that the borders of the region are Croatia to the west, Montenegro to the south, the canton boundaries of the Herzegovina-Neretva...
(father Nikola Šešelj and mother Danica Misita). The family lived near the old Sarajevo train station before they moved to Hrasno
Hrasno
Hrasno is a neighbourhood in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.It is home of the fourth tallest skyscraper in the Balkans, known as the Bosmal City Center....
neighbourhood. Šešelj's father worked on the railways and died during Šešelj's early youth; he and his sister Dragica were raised by their mother.
Šešelj attended First Sarajevo Gymnasium with excellent grades. While there, at the age of 17, he took an offer to join the Communist League
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...
(SKJ), which was extended to him as a result of the exceptional effort shown at one of the workers' actions in Banja Luka
Banja Luka
-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...
that were organized in the years following the devastating 1969 earthquake that hit the city. He was also involved with various student organizations in school as the president of the gymnasium's student union and later as the president of its youth committee. Even during his gymnasium days, Šešelj demonstrated his argumentative side and had frequent altercations with school principal Blanka Popović and municipal youth committee president Boban Jakovljević over what he saw to be discrepancies between proclaimed theory and the practical implementation of various initiatives. During these disagreements, Šešelj still stayed within the parameters of communist ideology.
After gymnasium, Šešelj enrolled at the University of Sarajevo
University of Sarajevo
The University of Sarajevo is the first university in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was originally established in 1531 as a Madrasah or Islamic Law college, with a modern university being established and expanded on top of that in 1949. Today, with 23 faculties and around 55,000 enrolled students, it...
's Faculty of Law, where he completed his undergraduate studies in two years and eight months. Though short, his time at Sarajevo University was eventful as he openly criticized dean candidate Fuad Muhić, publicly proclaiming him unfit to perform the duties of that position.
Immediately after graduation in mid 1976, Šešelj continued with graduate studies by enrolling at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law
University of Belgrade Faculty of Law
The University of Belgrade Faculty of Law , also known as the Belgrade Law School, is one of the first-tier educational institutions of the University of Belgrade, Serbia...
, where he earned a masters degree in June 1978 with a masters thesis titled The Marxist Concept of an Armed People. On 26 November 1979 he obtained a doctorate at the same university after successfully defending his dissertation (doctoral thesis) titled The Political Essence of Militarism and Fascism, which made him the youngest PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
holder in Yugoslavia at only 25 years of age.
While still pursuing his Ph.D., Šešelj applied for a position as assistant lecturer at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Law, but instead was hired by the Faculty of Political Sciences at the same university. In December 1979 he joined the Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
to serve the mandatory military service and was stationed in Belgrade. He left the army in November 1980, but in the meantime he had lost his position at the university.
Academic career
During early 1980s, Šešelj began to associate more with individuals from dissident intellectual circles in Belgrade, some of whom had Serbian nationalist political leanings. After arriving home in Sarajevo after completing his army service, Šešelj's career stagnated due to difficulties in finding a job at the university despite impressive academic credentials. He held Muslim professors at the Faculty of Political Sciences Atif Purivatra, Hasan Sušić and Omer Ibrahimagić responsible for his situation, openly criticizing and describing them as Pan-IslamistsPan-Islamism
Pan-Islamism is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic state — often a Caliphate. As a form of religious nationalism, Pan-Islamism differentiates itself from other pan-nationalistic ideologies, for example Pan-Arabism, by excluding culture and ethnicity as primary...
and nationalists.
University of Sarajevo
In September 1981, Šešelj finally rejoined the Faculty of Political Sciences where he was asked to teach courses on international relations. The Faculty of Political Sciences, as a starting point for future politicians, was closely controlled and overseen by the Communist Party, and outspoken Šešelj quickly drew the attention of party officials. He openly supported another prominent younger intellectual, Nenad Kecmanović, who was himself embroiled in a controversy that drew criticism from some sections of the communist nomenklatura in Bosnia due to his writings in NINNIN (magazine)
NIN is a weekly newsmagazine published in Belgrade, Serbia. Its name is an acronym for Nedeljne informativne novine which roughly translates into Weekly Informational Newspaper....
magazine. Furthermore, in the literary journal Književna reč, Šešelj continued to criticize Muslim university professors (Atif Purivatra, Hasan Sušić and Muhamed Filipović) for having harmed his professional career. He further reproached them for taking part in an international conference in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
that focused on Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
's Green Book. Šešelj considered the views that these intellectuals expressed in their contributions to the said conference as "pan-Islamist".
Expulsion from the Communist League
Still, the biggest controversy was raised when Šešelj came up against faculty colleague Brano MiljušBrano Miljuš
Branko "Brano" Miljuš is a Serbian politician and academic from Bosnia-Herzegovina.Former high ranking official of the Yugoslav Communist League' Bosnia-Herzegovina branch, he was most recently a member of Alliance of Independent Social Democrats .In early 1999, he became the Prime Minister elect...
. Protege of Hamdija Pozderac
Hamdija Pozderac
Hamdija Pozderac was a Bosniak communist politician and the president of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1971- 74. He was a vice president of the former Yugoslavia in late 1980s, and was in line to become the president of Yugoslavia just before he was forced to resign from politics in 1987...
and Branko Mikulić
Branko Mikulic
Branko Mikulić was a communist politician and statesman in the Yugoslavia. Mikulić was one of the leading communist politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the communist rule in the former Yugoslavia.-Biography:...
(SR Bosnia-Herzegovina
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina , known until 1963 under the name of People's Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...
's highest and most powerful political figures at the time), Miljuš was well positioned within the communist apparatus as the secretary of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Communist League
League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the Bosnian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia.- Leaders :*Secretaries of the Central Committee of the League of Communists...
's Sarajevo branch. Šešelj dissected Miljuš's masters degree thesis and accused him of plagiarizing more than 40 pages in it from the published works of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Edvard Kardelj
Edvard Kardelj
Edvard Kardelj also known under the pseudonyms Sperans and Krištof was a Yugoslav communist political leader, economist, partisan, publicist, and full member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts...
. Šešelj's criticism didn't end there, as he went after even the highest political echelons in the republic, particularly Pozderac who was the reviewer of Miljuš's masters degree thesis. As a result, a bitter and protracted power struggle spilled outside the faculty and into the political institutions and corridors of power. Other faculty members and intellectuals to offer their support to Šešelj were Boro Gojković, Džemal Sokolović, Hidajet Repovac, Momir Zeković, Ina Ovadija-Musafija, etc. Still, the Pozderac side was much stronger and the whole thing ended with Šešelj being expelled from the Communist League on 4 December 1981.
Demotion to the Social Research Institute
By spring 1982, barely 6 months after getting re-hired, his position at the Faculty of Political Sciences was also in question. He ended up getting moved (essentially demoted) to the Institute for Social Research (Institut za društvena istraživanja), an institution affiliated with the Faculty. A number of Belgrade intellectuals, mostly writers and researchers in the social sciences, came to his defense by writing letters of protest to the government of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo.Around this time Šešelj became very critical of the way that the national question was dealt with in Yugoslavia: he spoke out in favour of the use of force against Kosovo Albanians and denounced the passivity of the Serbian political leadership in handling the Kosovo crisis. In his view, the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina were not a nation but a religious group. He expressed his fear of seeing Bosnia and Herzegovina turn into a republic dominated by Muslims.
Šešelj also began to be followed and spied on by UDBA
UDBA
The Department of State Security was the secret police organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Although it operated with more restraint than other secret...
(Yugoslav state security) agents. His first arrest took place on 8 February 1984, the second day of the Sarajevo Olympics
1984 Winter Olympics
The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated from 8–19 February 1984 in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Other candidate cities were Sapporo, Japan; and Gothenburg, Sweden...
. He was on a train from Sarajevo heading to Belgrade when the secret police burst on board around Podlugovi
Podlugovi
Podlugovi is a village in the municipality of Ilijaš, Bosnia and Herzegovina.-References:...
station and seized some of his writings that he had in the suitcase. Among the agents handling his arrest that day was Dragan Kijac (later Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
state security chief). In Doboj
Doboj
Doboj is a city and a municipality in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, situated in the northern part of the Republika Srpska entity on the river Bosna. Doboj is the largest national railway junction; as such, the seats of the Republika Srpska Railways, and the Railways Corporation of Bosnia and...
, Šešelj was taken off the train, transferred into a police Mercedes, and transported to Belgrade where he was questioned for 27 hours straight before being let go and informed that he would be contacted again. After getting back to Sarajevo, UDBA took him in twice more for questionings, which were handled by Rašid Musić and Milan Krnjajić. According to Šešelj, they had the transcripts of the various conversations he had with some of his closest friends in which they openly criticized everything from specific political figures to communist regime in general:
On 20 April 1984, he was arrested at a private apartment in Belgrade among the group of 28 individuals during the lecture given by Milovan Đilas as part of Free University, a semi-clandestine organization that gathered intellectuals critical of the communist regime. In total Šešelj spent 4 days behind bars on that occasion before being let go.
Prison
However, Šešelj was a free man for barely three weeks. In mid May 1984, Stane DolancStane Dolanc
Stane Dolanc was a Yugoslav and Slovenian communist politician, one of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito's closest collaborators and one of the most influential people in Yugoslav federal politics in the 1970s and 1980s...
, Slovene representative in Yugoslav Presidency and the all-powerful longtime state security chief, gave an interview to TV Belgrade, explicitly going after Šešelj for his unpublished manuscript Odgovori na anketu-intervju: Šta da se radi? in which he calls for "reorganization of the Yugoslav federalism, SFR Yugoslavia with only four constituent republics (Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia), abolishing of the single-party system, and the abolishing of artificial nationalities". Two days later, on 15 May 1984, Šešelj was arrested again in Sarajevo. This time, as soon as he got to prison, he began a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
that lasted 48 days, which got the foreign press interested in his case:
On 9 July 1984, he was given an eight-year sentence in prison. The verdict delivered by presiding judge Milorad Potparić concluded that Šešelj "acted from the anarcho
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
-liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
platform thereby committing the criminal act of counterrevolutionary endangerment of the social order". The single most incriminating piece of evidence cited by the court was the unpublished manuscript that the secret police found in Šešelj's home. On appeal, the Supreme Court of SFR Yugoslavia reduced the sentence to six years, then to four, and finally two. Up until his sentencing, Šešelj taught political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in Ann Arbor, and later in Sarajevo.
Šešelj served the first eight months of his sentence in Sarajevo and the last fourteen in Zenica prison
Zenica prison
Zenica prison is a closed-type prison located in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was opened in 1886...
before getting released in 1986 – two months early due to continuous pressure, protests and petitions by intellectuals throughout Yugoslavia (many of whom were later his bitter political opponents). In total, Šešelj spent 22 months in prison, six of which were spent in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
.
Move to Belgrade
Upon release from prison, Šešelj permanently moved to Belgrade. Talking about the reasons behind the move, he said: Once in Belgrade he initially made a living by writing and publishing books (samizdatSamizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
).
In a 1983 interview for Omladinske novine when asked what his ethnicity, he replied that he was a Yugoslav
Yugoslavs
Yugoslavs is a national designation used by a minority of South Slavs across the countries of the former Yugoslavia and in the diaspora...
.
Political career
In 1989 Šešelj returned to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where Momčilo Đujić, a Chetnik leader from World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
living there in exile, bestowed on Šešelj the title Vojvoda (duke) of the Chetniks
Chetniks
Chetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
, to make a "unitary Serbian state where all Serbs would live, occupying all the Serb lands". Together with Vuk Drašković
Vuk Draškovic
Vuk Drašković , leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, is a Serbian politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia.He graduated from the University of Belgrade's Law School in 1968...
and Mirko Jović
Mirko Jovic
Mirko Jović is a Serbian politician who stood for president of Serbia in the Serbian presidential election, 2004 for the Radical Party of People, Serbia, Diaspora and European Bloc. He lives in Nova Pazova.-Political career:...
, Šešelj founded the anti-communist Serbian National Renewal (SNO) party in 1989. Šešelj later split off the SNO party to form 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...
(SRS), thus forming the Chetniks under his command.
Šešelj reportedly boasted in June 1991, shortly before Slovenia and Croatia unilaterally declared independence from Yugoslavia, with the aim of suppressing their secession from Yugoslavia, that his paramilitary forces would not kill Croats with knives, but would gouge out their eyes with rusty spoons so that they would die of tetanus
Tetanus
Tetanus is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive, rod-shaped, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani...
. The statement raised a lot of controversy. The actual quote he delivered on Minimaksovizija talk show that aired on TV Politika
RTV Politika
RTV Politika was a major Serbian TV station, owned by Politika AD, that was on the air from 1990 until 2007.It was founded in 1990 and it was a majority-owned subsidiary of the aforementioned Politika AD media company that solely dealt in print media up to that point...
was: "As far as this talk of slaughter is concerned... we're now slaughtering with rusty shoehorns so that the autopsy can't determine whether the victim died of the physical wounds or of tetanus".
In the elections of December 1992, the SRS won 27 percent of the vote versus the 40 percent won by the Socialist Party
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...
of 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...
. His relationship with Milošević was amicable during the first years of the Yugoslav Wars. In September 1993, the two leaders came into conflict over Milošević's withdrawal of support for Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
in the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
, and Milošević described Šešelj as "the personification of violence and primitivism". Šešelj landed in jail again in 1994 and 1995 for his opposition to Milošević. In 1998 as violence in the Serbian province of 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...
increased, Šešelj joined Milošević’s national unity government
National unity government
A national unity government, government of national unity, or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency.- Canada :During World War I the Conservative government of Sir...
, siding briefly with the pro-Milošević government.
In July 1997, Šešelj was a guest on BKTV's Tête-à-tête talk duel programme with lawyer Nikola Barović as the other duelist. The duel quickly denegerated into an emotional exchange of verbal antagonism and ad hominem attacks that culminated in Barović pouring water on Šešelj. Sometime later Barović was physically assaulted and beaten up by Šešelj's security detail. Asked to comment Šešelj cynically stated that Barović slipped on a banana peel and tumbled down the flight of stairs.
Šešelj objected to foreign media and human rights organizations acting in Yugoslavia, saying:
He became vice-president of the Serbian government between 1998 and 2000. During 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...
and the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, he and his political party were willing to support Milošević, but after three months of bombardment they were the only party to vote against the withdrawal of Serbian security forces from Kosovo
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, adopted on June 10, 1999, after recalling resolutions 1160 , 1199 , 1203 and 1239 , authorised an international civil and military presence in Kosovo ) and established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo .Resolution...
.
ICTY custody
In late February 2003 Šešelj surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on the indictment of "eight counts of crimes against humanity and six counts of violations of the laws or customs of war for his alleged participation in a joint criminal enterpriseOrganized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
". In 2005 Šešelj made headlines when he was asked to read a letter which he earlier sent to the ICTY that stated his contempt for the court. The letter was read in front of cameras by Šešelj and contained copious amounts of insults and expletives aimed at the top Tribunal officials and judges. In his letter, Šešelj said that the presiding judge has only "the right" (mocking the Hague's judges) to perform oral sex on him, and he referred to Carla Del Ponte as "the prostitute". Recordings of this statement have been aired many times in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While in custody, he wrote „Kriminalac i ratni zločinac Havijer Solana” (“Felon and War Criminal Javier Solana
Javier Solana
Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, KOGF is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. After serving in the Spanish government under Felipe González and Secretary General of NATO , he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary...
”), a criticism of the NATO Secretary General
Secretary General of NATO
The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is the chairman of the North Atlantic Council, the supreme decision-making organisation of the defence alliance. The Secretary-General also serves as the leader of the organisation's staff and as its chief spokesman...
(and the current High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Secretary-General
Secretary-General
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
of both the Council
Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union is the institution in the legislature of the European Union representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers...
of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and the Western European Union
Western European Union
The Western European Union was an international organisation tasked with implementing the Modified Treaty of Brussels , an amended version of the original 1948 Treaty of Brussels...
) who led the 1999 war in Kosovo.
On 2 December 2006, about 40,000 people marched in the Serbian capital, Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, in support of Šešelj during his 28-day hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
in The Hague - after the ICTY denied him the right to choose his own defence counsel. Speaking at the rally, Radical Party secretary Aleksandar Vučić
Aleksandar Vucic
Aleksandar Vučić is a Serbian politician, Deputy President of the Serbian Progressive Party. He is a former secretary-general of the Serbian Radical Party and was President of the Serbian Radical Party's city parliamentary club before joining the Serbian Progressive Party. Besides Serbian,...
said "He's not fighting just for his life. But he's fighting for all of us who are gathered here. Vojislav Šešelj is fighting for Serbia!" Šešelj ended the hunger strike on 8 December after being allowed to present his own defence.
Although in custody in The Hague, Šešelj led his party's list of contenders for the January 2007 general election
Serbian parliamentary election, 2007
Parliamentary elections took place in Serbia on 21 January 2007. The first session of the new National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia was held on 14 February 2007....
.
Under the ICTY indictment, Šešelj is charged with 15 counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs or war. The first of these charges is for persecution of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serbs in Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
, Šamac, Zvornik
Zvornik
Zvornik is a city on the Drina river in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, located south of the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The town Mali Zvornik lies directly across the river in Serbia, and not far north is Loznica.-History:Zvornik is first mentioned in 1410, although it was...
and the Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
. The other charges include murder, forced deportation, illegal imprisonment, torture and property destruction during the Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
.
On 11 February 2009, after 71 witnesses had already been heard and with the expected conclusion of the prosecution's case just seven hours away, the presiding judges suspended Šešelj’s trial indefinitely at the prosecutors’ request. The prosecutors alleged that witnesses were being intimidated. Šešelj claimed that the true motive of the prosecutors was that they were losing their case. He claimed the court had presented numerous false witnesses to avoid having to acquit him and said it should pay him damages for "all the suffering and six years spent in detention". One of the three judges voted against the suspension of the trial stating that it was “unfair to interrupt the trial of someone who has spent almost six years in detention”.
A contempt of court case against Šešelj was opened for having revealed, in a book he had written, the identities of three witnesses whose names had been ordered suppressed by the tribunal, and for this he was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment by the International Criminal Court.
On 25 November 2009, it was announced that Šešelj's trial would continue on 12 January 2010. The trial resumed on schedule and continued until 17 March 2010.
On 10 March 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that Šešelj is scheduled to appear in court on 20 April 2010 for contempt of court for allegedly disclosing court restricted information on 11 protected witnesses. This is his second time he has been charged with contempt. In July 2009 he was found guilty of contempt on similar charges involving two protected witnesses and was sentenced to 15 months in jail.
On 17 March 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that "The trial of Vojislav Šešelj has been adjourned until further notice, pending checks on the health status of the remaining four Chamber witnesses". In the weekly ICTY briefing on 24 March stated "The trial of Vojislav Šešelj is expected to continue on Tuesday at 14:15 in Courtroom I with the testimony of one of the four remaining Trial Chamber witnesses".
On 14 April 2010, the weekly ICTY press briefing announced that with only one witness still to be heard, on the 30 March 2010 Šešelj trial was adjourned until further notice but was likely to resume in May 2010, after Šešelj's second contempt proceeding initiated against him by the Tribunal have ended.
Due to health problems, he has had an operation at the ICTY of his heart.
Anti-Catholicism
Šešelj has written a couple of books in which he explicitly accused Roman Catholic churches of engaging in activities against Serbs.Among them are:
- Roman clergy always thirsty for Serb blood (2006)
- Anti-Christ's deputy Roman Pope Benedict XVI (2006)
- Pontifex Maximus of Satanist church John Paul II. (2006)
- Devil's assistant criminal Roman Pope John Paul II. (2004)
See also
- White Eagles (paramilitary)White Eagles (paramilitary)The White Eagles , also known as the Avengers , were a Serbian paramilitary group associated with the Serbian National Renewal and the Serbian Radical Party...
- Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars
- International Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaThe 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...
External links
- Vojislav Šešelj official site
- "Vojislav Šešelj in his own words"
- "War crime suspects go for win in Serb poll"
- "Vojislav Šešelj: Milošević's hard-line ally"
- International Herald Tribune - Šešelj goes on trial at The Hague over Serbian crimes"
- "Serb Nationalist’s Trial Begins in The Hague"
- "Chetnik leader's war crimes trial"
- "Serbia's Šešelj incited ethnic cleansing"
- ANTI-GLOBAL POLICY