a dentist dies in a secret cell

Croatian Serb Milan Babic in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, The Netherlands, Tuesday 29 June 2004.

Babic was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The Croatian Serb leader had confessed persecuting Croats during the war in 1991 and 1992.

According to media reports on Monday 6 March 2006, Babic committed suicide at prison in The Hague. The UN war crimes tribunal said in a statement that Babic was found dead in his cell at the U.N. detention unit on Sunday evening. (photo: zentralschweiz)

AGENCE-VLEEPTRON PRESSE
NEWS ADVISORY:

Below the questionable accuracy of our summary of the confusing history of Yugoslavia and the Balkans, followed by a News Story from dpa/Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Vleeptron has appended the INDICTMENT against this creep and momzer. He pleaded guilty to some of the charges and received a prison sentence of 13 years.

For a very cheap way to Feel Wonderful About Yourself, think about the worst things you ever did, and then read what this highly educated professional fuckhead was accused of having done, on purpose, while smiling, for quite a few years.

It is a quite fascinating Inventory of the Details and Nuts and Bolts of a contemporary genocide. The media rarely publishes or broadcasts accounts so detailed. This is not political bias. Nobody ever really wants to read or see or know this stuff. It's more ghastly than the movies. And it really happened very recently. They weren't actors and actresses. The dead ones didn't get up again and drive home.

MAN ON THE GROUND IN CH: You got any book or URL or movie recommendations about this stuff? Or insight or personal experiences? That's why you're On The Ground -- you're nearer, I'm very far away. Also you are better at the local lingos than Bob the Nulglot.

~ ~ ~

With the defeat of the German and Italian Axis forces who occupied Yugoslavia during World War Two, the power vacuum in the Balkans was filled by Communist partisan guerrilla leader Josip Broz, of mixed Slovene and Croat ancestry, who ruled Yugoslavia under his nom de guerre, Marshal Tito, until his death in 1980.

For 35 years, Tito suppressed all visible manifestations of ethnic and religious rivalries in the Balkans so effectively that during my American education during the Cold War, I didn't even know the Balkans had an ancient history of ethnic/religious warfare and strife. I knew that the assassination of Austrian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajebo in 1914 had sparked World War One, but I didn't know the assassination was a manifestation of historical, perpetual ethnic nationalism.

Yugoslavia under Tito was like the old bargain of the Pax Romana: In exchange for living under brutal armed repression, the state gave the people peace, stability and prosperity.

In the Balkans, the bargain quickly began to unravel after Tito was no longer there to enforce it. He left no political heir behind who shared Tito's clear vision of effectively suppressing all ethnic strife. It was a highly effective policy, but it failed to extinguish a huge volume of historical hatreds, which continued to simmer just beneath boiling.

Tito had not depended entirely on state force, political prisons and secret police; the policies he enforced with a stick also offered tasty carrots.

By the time he died, there were a million mixed marriages of Muslims and Christians in the Balkans, and decades of economic stability and prosperity; for a generation, it was possible to have an uninterrupted education and professional career, and to raise a family in the Balkans; peace and co-existence became the norm. Tito gave the Yugoslavs no choice, but millions of pan-ethnic Yugoslavs were making individual choices toward regional peace and stability anyway.

Now, after the violence of the 1990s -- Europe's worst eruption of ethnic and state violence since 1945 -- a new pressure seems to be working at restoring ethnic peace and co-existence in post-Yugoslavia. The survivor nations of the Balkans are quite desperate to join in the economic prosperity of the European Union -- a huge, delicious economic and political carrot. And it does not go unnoticed that the EU has spread a war-free umbrella over increasingly large areas of Europe -- something unimagined in pre-War Europe, where a war every 20 or 25 years was the standard historical experience.

The chief war crimes prosecutor in the Netherlands, Carla Del Ponte, said bluntly last month that any Balkan nation which continues to shield former genocidists and war criminals from the war crimes tribunal will face immediate barriers to that nation's invitation to join the European Union's prosperity umbrella. If they want a delicious lunch followed by kissing the pretty girl, they have to leave their guns at the door, and send their old gunfighters in handcuffs to the sheriff in the Hague.

Where things like this happen.

==============================

dpa / Deutsche Presse-Agentur
pickup on Monsters and Critics
Monday 6 March 2006

Milan Babic:
Serb dentist-
turned-strongman
was a key witness

by Boris Babic

Belgrade -- Milan Babic, the dentist-turned-strongman Serb leader who committed suicide in his Dutch prison cell Monday, was a key witness in trials of Belgrade politicians and police.

He had delivered strong testimony for The Hague tribunal's prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic four years ago, and was due to provide more evidence in other trials.

Babic, who turned 50 last week, rose to power in 1990 amid nationalist fervour that led to the violent disintegration of the former Yugoslavia the following year.

Croatian sources say that before he was more active in the Communist Party than as a dentist and director of a medical centre in Knin, the hub of Serbs in Croatia.

Backed militarily and financially by Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade, he organized the arming of Serbs in Croatia during 1991.

Skirmishes started breaking out after Serbs in the Knin area declared independence from Croatia in April 1991 and began blocking roads into 'their' territory' in the summer. By autumn, an all-out war, marred by atrocities against civilians, was raging.

The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) eventually charged Babic as a part of a 'joint criminal enterprise' that aimed to expel Croats from the self- proclaimed Serb Krajina Republic (RSK).

Tens of thousands of non-Serbs were driven out or killed from the territory, covering about one-third of Croatia, during the 1991-1995 conflict, most before 1991 expired.

In early 1992, Milosevic sidelined the strong-headed Babic and instead installed the much more pliant Goran Hadzic -- still a fugitive from ICTY.

Babic's downfall coincided with the start of a string of failed peace efforts and a lull in fighting that lasted until Croatia crushed RSK in June and August 1995.

Weeks before the collapse of RSK, Babic became its president again, but had to run from the Croat army to Serbia, where he lived humbly before surrendering to ICTY.

In 2002 he testified, initially as a protected witness, against Milosevic, implicating him as the mastermind of the RSK project and Belgrade's extremist politician Vojislav Seselj and secret police heads Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, as its engineers.

In January 2004 Babic pleaded guilty, under a deal with the prosecution, to one count of crimes against humanity.

Counts of murder, cruel treatment, destruction of villages and religious institutions were dropped within the arrangement and Babic was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The location where he served his sentence was not revealed.

At the time he killed himself, he has been returned to ICTY to testify against Milan Martic, another former high-ranking RSK official.

In Croatia, there was no official reaction to Babic's death, but observers say that the absence from a willing and well-informed witness would be missed in upcoming trials related to the war.

In Belgrade, it is likely that the suicide would be seen as an embarrassment to ICTY, particularly as Babic is the second Serb to hang himself in his cell.

In June 1998, Slavko Dokmanovic, the wartime mayor of Vukovar in Croatia, killed himself while awaiting a verdict. Belgrade sources said that Dokmanovic had been mentally ill and under insufficient observation in detention.

The fact that Babic was likely to testify against men presumably as dangerous as Stanisic and Simatovic -- who were released by ICTY ahead of their trials over their role in Croatia -- is also likely to spur speculation that he came under some sort of pressure.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

~ ~ ~

THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL
FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

THE PROSECUTOR OF THE TRIBUNAL

AGAINST

Milan BABIC

INDICTMENT

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, pursuant to her authority under Article 18 of the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ("the Statute of the Tribunal") charges:

Milan BABIC

with CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY and VIOLATIONS OF LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR as set forth below:

THE ACCUSED

1. Milan BABIC, son of Bozo, was born on 26 February 1956 in Kukar, municipality of Sinj, Croatia. He is a dentist by profession. In 1989 he assumed the position of one of the acting directors in the medical centre in Knin.

2. Milan BABIC, previously a member of the League of Communists of Croatia, was a prominent political figure in the Serbian Democratic Party ("SDS") in Croatia since its inception in February 1990 and held a senior position in the SDS municipal committee in Knin. After Jovan RASKOVIC’s death in 1992, Milan BABIC assumed the position as President of the SDS party, in which function he remained until 1995.

3. From 1990 until April 1994, Milan BABIC held the position of the President of the Municipal Assembly in Knin. From 31 July 1990 onwards, he was the President of the Serbian National Council ("SNC"). On 30 April 1991, Milan BABIC was elected President of the Executive Council of the so-called "Serbian Autonomous District/Sprska autonomna oblast/ ("SAO") Krajina." Subsequently, on 29 May 1991, he became the Prime Minister/President of the government of the self-declared SAO Krajina. On 19 December 1991, the SAO Krajina proclaimed itself Republic of Serbian Krajina/Republika Srpska Krajina ("RSK") with Milan BABIC as President. Milan BABIC held the position until 15 February 1992. Milan BABIC became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RSK government in April 1994. In July 1995 he was elected Prime Minister of the RSK government, a position he held only until beginning August 1995 when in the course of the Croatian offensive known as Operation Storm the whole of the RSK leadership including Milan BABIC fled the RSK.

INDIVIDUAL CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY

Article 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal

4. Milan BABIC is individually criminally responsible for the crimes referred to in Articles 3 and 5 of the Statute of the Tribunal and described in this indictment. The accused committed, or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation, or execution of these crimes. By using the word "committed" in this indictment the Prosecutor does not intend to suggest that the accused physically committed any of the crimes charged personally. "Committing" in this indictment refers to participation in a joint criminal enterprise as a co-perpetrator or an aider and abettor.

5. Milan BABIC participated in a joint criminal enterprise that came into existence no later than 1 August 1991 and continued until at least June 1992. The purpose of this joint criminal enterprise was the permanent forcible removal of the majority of the Croat and other non-Serb population from approximately one-third of the territory of the Republic of Croatia ("Croatia"), in order to make them part of a new Serb-dominated state through the commission of crimes in violation of Articles 3 and 5 of the Statute of the Tribunal. These areas included those regions that were referred to by Serb authorities as the "SAO Krajina," the "SAO Western Slavonia," the "SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem" (after 19 December 1991, the "SAO Krajina" became known as the RSK; on 26 February 1992, the "SAO Western Slavonia" and the "SAO Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem" joined the RSK), as well as the "Dubrovnik Republic /Dubrovac(ka republika".

6. The crimes enumerated in this indictment were within the objective of the joint criminal enterprise and Milan BABIC held the state of mind necessary for the commission of each of the crimes. Alternatively, the crimes enumerated in Counts 1 to 5 were the natural and foreseeable consequence of the execution of the objective of the joint criminal enterprise and Milan BABIC was aware that such crimes were the likely outcome of the execution of the joint criminal enterprise.

7. A number of individuals participated in this joint criminal enterprise at different times during its existence. Each participant or co-perpetrator within the joint criminal enterprise played his role or roles that significantly contributed to the overall objective of the enterprise. Individuals participating in this joint criminal enterprise included Slobodan MILOSEVIC; Milan MARTIC; Goran HADZIC; Jovica STANISIC; Franko SIMATOVIC, also known as "Frenki"; Vojislav SESELJ; General Blagoje ADZIC; General Ratko MLADIC and other known and unknown members of the Yugoslav People’s Army ("JNA"); the Serb Territorial Defence ("TO") of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro; local and Serbian police forces ("MUP forces"), including the State Security /Drzavna bezbednost ("DB") of the Republic of Serbia, and Serb police forces of the SAO Krajina and the RSK commonly referred to as "Martic’s Police," "Marticevci," "SAO Krajina Police" or "SAO Krajina Milicija" (hereinafter "Martic’s Police"). Milan BABIC participated in this joint criminal enterprise until at least February 1992.

8. Milan BABIC, acting individually or in concert with other members of the joint criminal enterprise participated in the joint criminal enterprise in the following ways:

1. In his capacity as the President of the SNC and subsequently as President/Prime Minister in the SAO Krajina and the RSK, he formulated, promoted, participated in, and/or encouraged the development and implementation of SDS and SAO Krajina/RSK governmental policies intended to advance the objective of the joint criminal enterprise. Throughout 1991, Milan BABIC attended meetings with the Serbian, SFRY and Bosnian Serb leadership defining these policies of the joint criminal enterprise and presented its positions in international negotiations.

2. He was instrumental in the establishment, support and maintenance of the government bodies ruling the SAO Krajina/RSK, which in co-operation with the military and police implemented the objective of the joint criminal enterprise and participated in the commission of crimes as listed in this indictment.

3. He participated in and contributed to the creation, organisation, recruitment, and direction of the Territorial Defence forces (TO) of the SAO Krajina and subsequently the RSK, which participated in the crimes listed in the indictment. From at least 1 June 1991 to including 15 February 1992, Milan BABIC was the de jure commander of the TO forces. On 8 August 1991 he appointed Milan MARTIC Deputy TO Commander.

4. Under Milan BABIC’s tenure as President/Prime Minister, Milan MARTIC was appointed to the following positions within the SAO Krajina: On 04 January 1991 he was appointed Secretary of the Interior; On 29 May 1991 he was appointed Minister of Defence; On 27 June 1991 he was re-appointed Minister of Interior. Milan BABIC co-operated with Milan MARTIC, which led to MARTIC’s command and control over "Martic’s Police" involved in the commission of crimes.

5. He participated in the provision of financial, material, logistical and political support necessary for the military take-over of territories in the SAO Krajina, and the subsequent forcible removal of the Croat and other non-Serb population by the TO forces, who acted in co-operation with the JNA and "Martic’s Police."

6. He made ethnically based inflammatory speeches during public events and in the media that created an atmosphere of fears and hatred amongst Serbs living in Croatia in order to win support for and participation in achieving the objective of the joint criminal enterprise.

7. He requested the assistance of or facilitated the participation of JNA forces to further the objective of the joint criminal enterprise.

8. He encouraged and assisted in the acquisition of arms and their distribution to Croatian Serbs to further the objective of the joint criminal enterprise.

9. Milan BABIC knowingly and willfully participated in the joint criminal enterprise, while sharing the intent of other participants in the joint criminal enterprise, or having knowledge of the intent of other participants in the joint criminal enterprise, or being aware of the foreseeable consequences of their actions. On this basis, he bears individual criminal responsibility for these crimes under Article 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal in addition to his responsibility under the same article for otherwise aiding and abetting in the planning, preparation, or execution of these crimes.

GENERAL ALLEGATIONS

10. At all time relevant to this indictment, a state of armed conflict existed in Croatia.

11. All acts and omissions charged as Crimes against Humanity were part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against the Croat and other non-Serb civilian populations of large areas of Croatia.

12. At all times relevant to this indictment, Milan BABIC was required to abide by the laws and customs governing the conduct of armed conflicts.

THE CHARGES
COUNTS 1 to 5

13. From on or about 1 August 1991 until at least 15 February 1992, Milan BABIC, acting individually or in concert with other known and unknown members of a joint criminal enterprise, committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation, or execution of persecutions of the Croat and other non-Serb civilian populations in the SAO Krajina/RSK.

14. Throughout this period, Serb forces, comprised of JNA, local Serb TO units and TO units from Serbia and Montenegro, local and Serbian MUP police units, including "Martic’s Police," and paramilitary units, attacked and took control of towns, villages and settlements in the SAO Krajina/RSK. After the take-over, Serb forces, in co-operation with the local Serb authorities, established a regime of persecutions designed to drive the Croat and other non-Serb civilian populations from these territories.

15. These persecutions were based on political, racial or religious grounds and included the following:

1. The extermination or murder of hundreds of Croat and other non-Serb civilians, including women and elderly persons, in Dubica, Cerovljani, Bacin, Saborsko, Poljanak, Lipovaca and neighbouring hamlets, Skabrnja, Nadin, and Bruska in Croatia. Following is a description of these incidents:

1. From about 7 October 1991, Serb forces, comprised of JNA, members of the local Serb TO, and "Martic’s Police" were in control of the area of Hrvatska Kostajnica. Most of the Croat civilians had fled their homes during the initial attack in September 1991. Approximately 120 Croat civilians, mostly women, the elderly or the infirm remained behind. In the morning of 20 October 1991, members of the Serb forces rounded up fifty-three civilians in Dubica and detained them in the village fire station. Shortly after, ten were released because they were either Serbs or had connections with Serbs. On 21 October 1991, the Serb forces took the remaining forty-three detained Croats to a location near the village of Bacin. In addition, the Serb forces brought thirteen non-Serb civilians from Bacin and Cerovljani to the same location. All fifty-six victims were killed there. At approximately the same time, the Serb forces took away an additional thirty civilians from Bacin and twenty-four from the villages Dubica and Cerovljani into an unknown location where they killed them.

2. From early August 1991 until 12 November 1991, the Croat villages of Saborsko, Poljanak and Lipovaca were attacked by members of Serb forces, in particular the JNA, the TO and "Martic’s Police," killing all remaining non-Serb inhabitants. On 28 October 1991, TO units entered Lipovaca and killed seven civilians. On 7 November 1991, JNA and TO units, in particular a special JNA unit from Nis, entered the hamlet of Vukovici near Poljanak and executed ten civilians. On 12 November 1991, members of the JNA, the TO and "Martic’s Police" entered the village of Saborsko where they killed twenty-nine Croat civilians.

3. In November 1991, forces comprised of the JNA, TO units, and "Martic’s Police" attacked the village of Skabrnja, near Zadar. On 18 November 1991, the Serb forces entered Skabrnja. Moving from house to house, they killed thirty-eight non-Serb civilians in their homes or in the streets. In addition, when Serb forces attacked the neighbouring villages of Nadin the next day, they killed seven non-Serb civilians. Between 18 November and February 1992, all remaining Croat civilians in Skabrnja died, including twenty-six of the remaining elderly and infirm Croat civilians.

4. On 21 December 1991, members of "Martic’s Police" and other Serb forces entered the village of Bruska and the hamlet of Marinovic where they killed ten persons, among them nine Croat civilians.

The names of all victims are listed in attached Annex 1.

2. The prolonged and routine imprisonment and confinement of several hundred of Croat and other non-Serb civilians in inhumane living conditions in the old hospital and the JNA barracks in Knin, as set forth below, which were used as detention facilities and run by the members of "Martic’s Police" and the JNA respectively, acting in co-operation with local Serb authorities and other Serb forces, including Serbian State Security officials.

1. Old hospital in Knin run by "Martic’s Police," approximately one hundred and twenty detainees, operating from at least August 1991 until at least November 1991.

2. JNA barracks in Knin operated by the JNA, approximately one hundred and fifty detainees from at least August 1991 until at least November 1991.

3. The deportation or forcible transfer of thousands of Croat and other non-Serb civilians from the SAO Krajina/RSK. According to the 1991 census the total population of the SAO Krajina/RSK was 286,716. Croats amounted to 78,611 (27, 42%) of the total population. Only 1,932 (0,67%) Muslims were registered at that time. Virtually the whole Croat, Muslims and non-Serb population of the SAO Krajina/RSK was forcibly removed, deported or killed.

4. The deliberate destruction of homes, other public and private property, cultural institutions, historic monuments and sacred sites of the Croat and other non-Serb population in Dubica, Cerovljani, Bacin, Saborsko, Poljanak, Lipovaca and neighbouring hamlets, Vaganac, Skabrnja, Nadin, and Bruska in the SAO Krajina/RSK.

16. By these acts and omissions, Milan BABIC committed:

Count 1: Persecutions on political, racial, and religious grounds, a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, punishable under Articles 5(h), and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 2: In relation to the conduct described in paragraph 15 a), Murder, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR, as recognised by Common Article 3(1)(a) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, punishable under Articles 3 and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 3: In relation to the conduct described in paragraph 15 b), Cruel treatment, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR, as recognised by Common Article 3(1)(a) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, punishable under Articles 3 and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 4: In relation to the conduct described in paragraph 15 d), Wanton destruction of villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR, as recognised by Common Article 3(1)(b) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, punishable under Articles 3 and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Count 5: In relation to the conduct described in paragraph 15 d), Destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to education or religion, a VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OR CUSTOMS OF WAR, as recognised by Common Article 3(1)(d) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, punishable under Articles 3 and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal.

Dated this 6th of November 2003
At The Hague
The Netherlands

Carla Del Ponte

Prosecutor

==============

ANNEX I

VICTIMS BACIN - PARAGRAPH 15 (a) (i)

October 1991 / BACIN & surroundings

LOCATION VICTIMS YEAR OF BIRTH / SEX
===================================
ALAVANCIC, Katarina / 1910 / FEMALE
ALAVANCIC, Terezija / 1922 / FEMALE
ANTOLOVIC, Josip / 1910 / MALE
ANTOLOVIC, Marija / 1917 / FEMALE
BARIC, Sofija / Not Known / FEMALE
BARUNOVIC, Ivo / Not Known / MALE
BARUNOVIC, Marija / Not Known / FEMALE
BARUNOVIC, Matija / 60 years / MALE
BARUNOVIC, Nikola / Not Known / MALE
BATINOVIC, Anka / Not Known / FEMALE
BATINOVIC, Marija / 1901 / FEMALE
BLINJA, Ana / 1923 / FEMALE
BLINJA, Josip / 1926 / MALE
BLINJA, Katarina / 1933 / FEMALE
BLINJA, Nikola / 1922 / MALE
BUNJEVAC,Toma / 60 years / MALE

[hundreds more]