Milošević trained as a lawyer and became director of the Belgrade Bank in 1978. He was elected as First Secretary of the Serbian Communist (later Socialist) Party in 1987 and won the presidential election in the republic two years later. A champion of Serbian hegemony over the constituent republics of the former Yugoslavia, Milošević organized the intervention of the Yugoslav federal army in Slovenia and Croatia (1991–92) and supported the secession of the Bosnian Serbs that began the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–95), with its ‘ethnic cleansing’ policies. As a result he achieved isolation from the international community and the collapse of the Serbian economy. Serbia’s subsequent policy of oppression, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against the majority Albanian population in the province of Kosovo led NATO to unleash a devastating series of bombing raids against Yugoslavia from March to June 1999, when Serbia effectively capitulated. Defeated in the presidential elections of 2000, Milošević at first refused to relinquish power; however, he conceded defeat following massive demonstrations. He was arrested in 2001 on charges of corruption, but subsequently extradited to face war crimes charges before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague. His trial began in 2002 and was still in progress when he died.