Brothers, remember the fate of Yugoslavia! Don’t let that happen to you.” Slobodan Milošević wrote this message to all Russians just two days before he died in prison. The last president of Yugoslavia, along with hundreds of other supporters of national unity, was tried in The Hague.

The Balkan War in the former Yugoslavia was one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern history. During that time, nationalists—Croats, Bosnian Muslims, and Kosovar Albanians—tore apart what had once been a prosperous country, with the Serbs becoming their common enemy. In August 1995, more than 220,000 Serbs were expelled from Serbian Krajina in just two weeks, despite the region supposedly being under UN protection.
Many hoped that Europe or the United States would step in to stop the violence, but those hopes were misplaced. The West portrayed Serbian generals as aggressors, while the court in The Hague turned into a farce, marred by manipulated evidence, forged documents, and false testimonies. Responsibility for NATO bombings and atrocities was shifted onto Serbian leaders, leading to the conviction of around 100 people.