Former Croatian Serb leader indicted for war crimes
The UN war crimes tribunal has indicted former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic for a campaign of ethnic cleansing early in the Balkan wars.
Babic, 47, was indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes, specifically for plotting the persecution, murder and cruel treatment of hundreds of non-Serbs, and the wanton destruction of schools, churches and private property.
If convicted, he faces life imprisonment. The indictment was unsealed in The Hague today after being approved by a judge.
Babic appeared at the Yugoslav tribunal a year ago as a witness against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. He was a senior Croatian Serb leader who became president of the breakaway Republic of Krajina when the Serb minority revolted after Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991.
During the ensuing war that lasted until 1995, Croatian Serb forces seized parts of the country with the backing of the Yugoslav army.
Prosecutors said Babic “participated in a joint criminal enterprise” to remove Croats and other non-Serb people from parts of Croatia “to make them part of a new Serb-dominated state.” Another participant of the conspiracy was Milosevic, then president of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s dominant republic.
Among the crimes alleged in Babic’s indictment, prosecutors cited an incident in October 1991 when Serb forces took 56 non-Serb civilians to a spot near the village of Bacin and killed them.
The following month, Serb forces moved from house to house in the village of Skabrnja, killing 38 non-Serbs in their homes or in the street. Over the next three months, the last 26 Croats in Skabrnja, all of them old or infirm, were murdered, the indictment said.
The indictment lists the names of nearly 200 victims killed in incidents in late 1991 and early 1992.
At the urging of Milosevic, Babic was sacked as president of Krajina in 1992. Though he remained in politics, he lost much of his power.
Babic testified against Milosevic at his war crimes trial in 2002, asserting that Milosevic played a key political and military role behind the scenes in the Serb revolt in Croatia, despite Milosevic’s denial.
“You dragged the Serb people into war,” Babic said, charging that Milosevic failed to protect the Serbs. “You brought shame on the Serbs.”
Milosevic’s trial on 66 counts of war crimes is expected to last until 2006.
Babic fled to Belgrade shortly before the Croatian army retook Krajina in 1995, and has lived in seclusion since testifying against Milosevic.
A dentist before the war, he reportedly moved to a Belgrade suburb where he grew mushrooms on a cousin’s farm.
