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The prospect of Serbian domination under the intolerant Milosevic helped speed the secession of Slovenia and Croatia, whose own fanatically nationalist leader fueled fears among the Serb minority there. It was as the savior of the Serbs who live outside Serbia's borders -- nearly one-third of the community -- that Milosevic entered the fray. His strategy has been simple -- and effective. He stirs up Serbs with talk of imminent genocide, then sets his proxies loose to "protect" them, with fatal consequences for Croats and Muslims. Yet he insists that his aim is not the creation of a Greater Serbia, only the preservation of Yugoslavia. "We don't want to be a puppet regime of any foreign force -- unlike some others in Yugoslavia," he says, referring to Croatia's close ties with Germany. "Our people want to be independent and free, nothing else."
Few believe him. In August 1991 he openly declared his desire to secure under his control all parts of Yugoslavia populated by Serbs. His recent demurrals fly in the face of hard evidence that Serbia has orchestrated aggression first in Croatia and now in Bosnia. While Milosevic was insisting that no irregulars from Serbia proper were involved in the fighting, a local newspaper published photographs of the Belgrade guerrilla fighter known as Arkan in the war-torn Bosnian town of Bijelinja. "This whole business is far too organized just to be happening," says a Western diplomat in Belgrade. "Milosevic has proved time and again that he will lie when cornered."
Though his own people are more and more dismayed over the war, Milosevic remains unshaken by the world's gathering wrath. "It is the totally wrong approach to pressure Yugoslavia to solve problems outside of Yugoslavia, in a situation in which we don't want to be involved," he says. His line is that since the newly constituted rump Yugoslavia has ordered its army out of Bosnia and turned the fight over to ethnic Serbs there, it is no longer Serbia's problem. But discouraged diplomats warn that nothing is likely to deter Milosevic from his goal of Greater Serbia. Says a U.S. analyst: "Where we're interested in peace, he wants to win."
As Milosevic absolves himself of responsibility, how many more must die? Says a U.S. State Department official: "For him, the word compromise is a dirty word, meaning treason and surrender." Indeed, he appears to have hunkered down, convinced of his own righteousness. "We rejected the abolition of our country," he says. "If we have to be blamed for that, I am proud to be blamed for loyalty to my country." As hundreds die, thousands flee and Serbia faces international isolation, Milosevic's blame goes far beyond that.