Milan Babić

Milan Babić Милан Бабић
Babić in front of the Serb tricolour, 1992
1st President of Republic of Serbian Krajina
In office 19 December 1991 – 16 February 1992
Prime Minister	Dušan Vještica
Succeeded by	Goran Hadžić
5th Prime Minister of Republic of Serbian Krajina
In office 27 July 1995 – 7 August 1995
President	Milan Martić
Preceded by	Borislav Mikelić
Personal details
Born	(1956-02-26)26 February 1956 Kukar, Vrlika, Croatia, Yugoslavia
Died	5 March 2006(2006-03-05) (aged 50) The Hague, Netherlands
Nationality	Serb
Political party	Serb Democratic Party
Religion	Serbian Orthodox

Milan Babić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Бабић; 26 February 1956 – 5 March 2006) was from 1991 to 1992 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.

He was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 2004 and was the first ever indictee to admit guilt and make a plea bargain with the prosecution, after which he was sentenced to 13 years in prison. He expressed "shame and remorse" in a public statement and declared that he had acted to relieve the collective shame of the Croatian Serbs, asking his "Croatian brothers to forgive their Serb brothers" for their actions. He was found dead in his prison cell in The Hague in March 2006, an apparent suicide. Serbian Radical Party leader dr. Vojislav Šešelj claimed responsibility for his suicide. He added that the prosecution initially promised that it would not press charges if he testified against his fellow Serbs. The charges were pressed anyway. Then the prosecution promised an 11-year sentence if he made a plea bargain, but he was convicted to 13 year old sentence.

Milan Babić, the son of Bozo Babic, was born in the village of Kukar near the town of Vrlika, in SR Croatia, Yugoslavia. He was originally a dentist by profession. In 1981 he graduated from Belgrade University's School of Dentistry. In 1989, he became one of the directors of the medical centre in Knin, a largely Serb-inhabited town in southwestern Croatia. He entered politics in 1990, as Yugoslavia began to disintegrate, leaving the League of Communists of Croatia and joined the newly established nationalist Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) at its inception, on 17 February 1990. He was elected President of the Municipal Assembly of Knin shortly afterwards. At the time, Serbs comprised about 12.2% of Croatia's population, forming a majority in a strip of land known as "Krajina" along the Croatian-Bosnian border. Croatia's moves towards independence following the election of the President Franjo Tuđman were strongly opposed to the partitioning of their country by their Serbian minority, which was supported both politically and militarily by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serbia under President Slobodan Milošević. Nationalist Serbs in the "Krajina" established a Serbian National Council to coordinate opposition to Croatia; Babić was elected its President.