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UN Court Sentences Former Croatian Serb Leader to 13 Years in Prison
AFP, Yahoo News
June 29, 2004
The United Nations crimes court sentenced former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic to 13 years in prison after the one-time Milosevic ally pleaded guilty on charges of crimes against humanity earlier this year.
The judges swept aside a prosecution recommendation of a sentence of no more than 11 years because they ruled he played a greater role in the 1991-95 war in Croatia, which left over 25,000 people dead, than the parties suggested.
The court is not bound by a prosecution sentencing recommendation but it is rare for judges to impose harsher sentences than the prosecution have demanded.
Babic was mayor of the central Croatian town of Knin, a stronghold of separatist Serb rebels during the 1991-1995 war in Croatia.
He later became president of the self-proclaimed Serb republic of Krajina (RSK) -- an area that represents one-third of Croatia -- from 1991 until February 15, 1992, when hundreds of Croats and other non-Serbs, including women and the elderly, were massacred in the enclave.
"Virtually the whole Croat and other non-Serb population was expelled from the region in question ... More than 200 civilians were murdered and several hundred civilians were confined or imprisoned in inhumane conditions," presiding judge Alphons Orie said.
The judges said that although Babic was not the "prime mover" in the atrocities campaign "the trial chamber recalls that Babic chose to remain in power and provided significant support for the persecutions against non-Serb civilians".
Babic, 48, stood stone-faced as the judges pronounced the sentence.
The former Croatian Serb leader surrendered to the tribunal in November 2003 and pleaded guilty this January to being a member of a joint criminal enterprise, together with former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic aimed at "the forcible permanent removal of Croat and other non-Serb populations" from the Krajina to turn the region into a Serb dominated state.
Babic was a close ally of Milosevic but the two had a falling out later and Babic testified against his former mentor, who is also on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The Croatian Serb leader told the court in November 2002 that Milosevic had applied political, financial and military pressure to maintain a hold over the Serb minority in Croatia.
Babic's testimony was a major boost for the prosecution in the Milosevic case because it established a clear connection between Milosevic, who was only the president of Serbia at the time, and rebel Serbs in Croatia.
Milosevic is charged with over 60 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over his alleged central role in the wars in Croatia (1991-95), Bosnia (1992-95) and Kosovo (1998-99).
He faces a separate genocide charge over the bloody war in Bosnia. Milosevic is due to start presenting his defence case on July 5.
After his voluntary testimony Babic kept in contact with the tribunal until an indictment against him was issued and he surrendered voluntarily.
Babic will stay in the UN detention unit in a seaside suburb of the Hague until the tribunal has found a place for him to serve his sentence in one of the nine European countries who have agreed to take in ICTY convicts.
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