Serb gets 13 years for war crimes

A UN war crimes tribunal yesterday sentenced Milan Babic, the war-time leader of Croatia’s rebellious Serbs, to 13 years’ imprisonment, saying his role in ethnic cleansing showed “ruthlessness and savagery.”

Babic, 48, once one of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s closest allies, was convicted in January of one count of persecution for the seven-month campaign against non-Serbs in the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Krajina.

Hundreds of civilians were executed or murdered in Krajina and about 80,000 non-Serbs, mostly Croats and some Muslims, were expelled.