The Hague, Netherlands
Milan Babic, the former leader of Croatia’s rebel Serbs and a strong ally of Slobodan Milosevic, reportedly killed himself this week in his jail cell in The Hague. Babic, 50, created the breakaway Krajina Serb Republic and ruthlessly expelled Croats from the Serb-dominated region in one of the worst acts of ethnic cleansing in the Balkan wars of the 1990s. He pleaded guilty in 2003 to a single count and received a 13-year sentence, which he was serving in an undisclosed location. But Babic was transferred to The Hague temporarily to testify for the prosecution in the trial of another Croatian Serb. Babic had previously expressed regret for his crimes, but officials said he didn’t seem to be suicidal. Dutch authorities refused to reveal his method of suicide.
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