Serbia History

In 2003, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprised of the two republics that had chosen to remain within the Yugoslav Federation, was renamed Serbia and Montenegro. Since the nation's founding, the country has frequently been portrayed in a negative light in international news, and changing the image of an international pariah will be one of its challenges for the future. Under President Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia led military campaigns against neighboring republics in an effort to create a "Greater Serbia." In 1998, Serbian police joined the Yugoslavian army in fighting the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army but were forced to withdraw after NATO began military air strikes against targets in Serbia. Milosevic was later imprisoned at the Hague, indicted as a war criminal. Then, in March 2003, the newly elected Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in Belgrade.