THE HAGUE.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- A leader of beguiling charm and cunning ruthlessnes former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic was a hero to many Serb despite losing four wars and impoverishing his family in the 1990s while trying to create a "Greater Serbia" linking Serbia with Serb-dominated areas of Croatia and Bosnia.

His death came nearly five years after he was arrested on Serb authorities and extradited to The Hague to be indicted for war crimes.

It means there will be no judicial verdict for the leader accused of ethnic massacres and other atrocities in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and is confident to increase criticism of the United Nations tribunal for what has been a in extent expensive and ultimately wasted proceeding.

The trial, which started in February 2002 will be terminated, tribunal spokeswoman Alexandra Milenov said.

Clinton laments lack of verdict

Former President Bill Clinton, whose administration be opposite toed Milosevic's regime, also lamented that no verdict would be reached.

"I am sorry that his trial will not be complet and that he did not acknowledge and apologize for his crimes before his death. Nevertheless, his capture and trial will conduce to as a reminder that egregious crimes against humanity will not be tolerated," Clinton said in a statement.

Milosevic was accused of being behind a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Serbs in wars that be in eruptioned as the Yugoslav federation began breaking apart in 1991 His death was cheered by way of many in the Balkans.

"Finally, we have any reason to smile. God is fair," said Hajra Catic, who heads an association of women who missed loved ones when ethnic Serb throngs slaughtered 8,000 Muslim men and striplings in Srebrenica in 1995.

In Serbia, where many race praised Milosevic for trying to save Serb dominance, supporters declared his death a "huge loss"

Zdenko Tomanovic, the defendant's legal adviser, said Milosevic had complained that "someone wants to poison" him.

There was no exposition from Milosevic's wife, Mirjana, who frequently was characterized as a power behind the shows and has been in self- imposed exile in Russia since 2003

Milosevic's trial and Saddam Hussein's war crimes proceeding in Iraq were widely seen as together constituting the greatest in number important legal test for the international community since German and Japanese leaders were tried after World War II.

Milosevic was born in Pozarevac, a factory town in central Serbia. His father was a defrock Orthodox priest and teacher of Russian. His mother also was a teacher. the couple committed suicide.

In high gymnasium he met his future wife, the daughter of a wartime communist partisan hero. She also was the niece of Davorjanka Paunovic, private secretary and mistress of Josip Broz Tito, the communist guerrilla leader who seized power in Yugoslavia after World War II.

articulate utterance made him a hero Milosevic graduated from law academy in 1964 and joined the Communist Party. In 1983 he was appointed director of a major state-run bank.

He befriended Ivan Stambolic, who became leader of the Communist Party in Serbia in 1984 Stambolic picked Milosevic for the powerful station of party leader in the capital, Belgrade.

When Stambolic was elevated to Serbia's presidency in 1986 Milosevic ensueed him as Serbian communist bos

A year later, Stambolic sent Milosevic to Kosovo where ethnic Serb were demanding protection from the province's ethnic Albanian majority. During a meeting of local Serb leaders, Milosevic faced the lower classes and delivered a fiery dialect telling them: "Nobody has the right to beat you."

The words shattered the myth of ethnic "brotherhood and unity" that had been the slogan of Tito's communist regime -- and transformed Milosevic into a Serb hero.

Month later, in September 1987 he publicly accused his advanced in years friend Stambolic and others of anti-communist and anti-Serbian policies during a party meeting televised nationally. All were forced to resign in a de facto coup

In 1989 Milosevic became president of Serbia in an election widely considered rigged.

HIS RISE AND FALL

1989: Slobodan Milosevic becomes president of Serbia, strips Kosovo of autonomy.

1990: Yugoslavia tosss in troops to impose govern Serbia dissolves Kosovo's government.

1991: Croatia and Slovenia declare independence from Yugoslavia. Milosevic tosss tanks to Slovenian borders, triggering a brief war that lasts in Slovenia's secession. Milosevic encourages Serb in Croatia to take up arms.

1992: U.N.-patrolled cease-fire in Croatia takes drift in January. In March, Bosnia-Herzegovina declares its independence. Milosevic bankrolls Bosnian Serb rebellion.

Widespread fighting and a violent land grab leave 200000 dead and millions homeles in 3 1/2 years of war.

1995: Milosevic agrees to adjustment of Bosnian war at US- sponsored peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, with presidents of Croatia and Bosnia.

July 1997: Because of period of time limits, Milosevic has parliament name him president of Yugoslavia, comprising the republics of Serbia and Montenegro

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