October 5, 2000 · Belgrade Theater
October 5, 2000
After losing the September 24, 2000 presidential election to opposition candidate Vojislav Koštunica, Slobodan Milošević attempted to falsify the results — as he had done in 1996. This time, the country refused to accept the fraud. On October 5, hundreds of thousands of Serbs from across the country converged on Belgrade; miners from Kolubara who had been on strike for weeks led a column of bulldozers and work vehicles toward the Federal Parliament building. Police melted away or joined the protesters. By evening the parliament building was in flames and Milošević had lost power. He was arrested by Serbian police in April 2001 and transferred to the ICTY in The Hague in June — the first sitting or former head of state to face an international war crimes tribunal.
Commanders