Milan Babić
First President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina 1991–1992 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Milan Babić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Бабић; 25 February 1956 – 5 March 2006) was a Croatian Serb politician and war criminal who served as the first president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, a self-proclaimed state largely populated by Serbs of Croatia that wished to break away from Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence.
Milan Babić | |
---|---|
Милан Бабић | |
1st and 3rd President of Republic of Serbian Krajina | |
In office 19 December 1991 – 16 February 1992 | |
Prime Minister | Dušan Vještica |
Preceded by | position established |
Succeeded by | Goran Hadžić |
In office 12 December 1993 – 23 January 1994 | |
Preceded by | Goran Hadžić |
Succeeded by | Milan Martić |
5th Prime Minister of Republic of Serbian Krajina | |
In office 27 July 1995 – 7 August 1995 | |
President | Milan Martić |
Preceded by | Borislav Mikelić |
Succeeded by | position abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | (1956-02-25)25 February 1956 Kukar, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia |
Died | 5 March 2006(2006-03-05) (aged 50) The Hague, Netherlands |
Cause of death | Suicide by hanging |
Nationality | Serb |
Political party | Serb Democratic |
After the war, he was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2004 and was the first ever indictee to plead guilty and enter a plea bargain with the prosecution, after which he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Babić expressed "shame and remorse" in a public statement and declared that his plea bargain was intended to relieve the collective shame of the Croatian Serbs, and asked his "Croatian brothers to forgive their Serb brothers" for their actions.
After he was sentenced in 2004, Babić was found dead in his prison cell in The Hague in March 2006, in an apparent suicide.