BBC reporter Gavin Hewitt profiles Slobodan Milosevic. Through interviews with various diplomats and experts, Hewitt shows that Milosevic defies definition and is a calculated, brutal leader at the same time. The West characterizes Milosevic, who has some popular support and is regarded in his circles as a relaxed, rather human leader, as a totalitarian dictator. For years, western intelligence agencies have been building a profile of Milosevic. Panorama explores Milosevic's childhood, early adulthood, and his relationship with his wife, Mira Markovic; the significance of the Kosovo battle to the Serbs and how Milosevic exploits those sentiments; the war in Vukovar, Croatia and in Bosnia, including the fall of Srebrenica; and whether the West has misread the mind of Milosevic. Excerpts from a Panorama interview with Milosevic from December 13, 1993 are featured.
Participants: Milan Panic, former Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (claims that Milosevic is capable of violence); Tony Blair; Madeleine Albright; President Clinton; David Owen, European envoy to Yugoslavia, 1992–95 (states that the greatest mistake was to threaten Milosevic with air power only); Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Envoy to the Balkans (says that Milosevic ranges with astonishing speed from charm to brutality); Douglas Hurd, foreign secretary, 1989–95 (says that he could never read Milosevic's mind); Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, political director, Foreign Office, 1994–96 (claims that Milosevic knows what he is doing); Dr. Radmila Milentijevic, Serbian information minister, 1997–98 (claims that he is a very warm person, a charming man, who likes a drink occasionally; she finds him a strong man and would not call him a nationalist; to link him to ethnic cleansing is to ascribe him power that he never had); Vladislav Jovanovic, Yugoslav ambassador to United Nations (says that Milosevic is shy, and a very modest person); Dr. Jerrold Post, Director, Political Psychology Center, CIA, 1965–86 (claims that Milosevic has a very dangerous personality, but one which doesn't fit any classical personality disorders; and that he has an absence of scruples); Harem Suljic, Srebrenica massacre survivor; Col. Gerry Kremer, Dutch Surgeon (from March 11, 1996 Panorama); Hakija Huseinovic, Srebrenica massacre survivor; Richard Goldstone, Prosecutor, Int. Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, 1994–96 (claims that Milosevic is guilty of war crimes); and John Scanlon, U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia, 1985–89.
Footage: satellite imagery of NATO planes hitting targets; Serbian TV images of Milosevic; Kosovo Albanian refugees fleeing; unrest in Kosovo in 1987 (also in 483); a Serbian TV reenactment of the Kosovo battle; Milosevic speaking in Kosovo in 1989; a shooting in Sarajevo; Srebrenica; Ratko Mladic in Srebrenica; UN soldiers held hostage by Bosnian Serbs (May 26, 1995); Serbian troops in Kosovo; and the aftermath of the Racak massacre.