Babic convicted of war persecution

A UN war crimes tribunal today convicted wartime Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic of one count of persecution after he pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors and sought forgiveness from the Croatian people for his crimes.

The court also accepted the prosecution’s decision to drop four other charges of murder, cruelty and the wanton destruction of villages during the war in Croatia, which was launched when the Serbs revolted after Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Presiding judge Alphons Orie of the Netherlands set hearings for April on Babic’s sentence.

Prosecutors have recommended 11 years imprisonment.

Babic, 47, was a ranking Croatian Serb leader who became president of the breakaway Republic of Krajina. He was then a key ally of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serb and Yugoslav president who was conducting his own defence in an on 66 counts of war crimes in an adjacent courtroom while the judges were pronouncing their decision on Babic.

Babic entered his guilty plea at a hearing in the Hague yesterday, but the tribunal adjourned for a day to consider its decision whether the agreement with prosecutors was justified. The judges had rejected an earlier plea bargain.

On Monday, Babic concluded the hearing with a brief statement expressing regret and begging forgiveness.

“I stand before this tribunal with a deep sense of shame and remorse. I allowed myself to participate in the persecution of the worst kind against people only because they were Croats, not Serbs,” he said.

As part of the plea deal, Babic agreed to testify in other trials. In November 2002, one year before his own indictment, Babic testified for three weeks as a prosecution witness against Milosevic, accusing his former mentor of dragging the Croatian Serbs into war.