At 18:30 hours on Sunday 5 March, Milan Babic, a detained witness, was found dead in his cell at the United Nations Detention

Hospitals & Asylums

Obituary of Milan Babic HA-5-3-06

At 18:30 hours on Sunday 5 March, Milan Babic, a detained witness, was found dead in his cell at the United Nations Detention Unit in Scheveningen. The Detention Unit Medical Officer confirmed Milan Babic’s death shortly after his body was found. The Dutch authorities were called immediately. After conducting an investigation, they confirmed that the cause of death was suicide. Milan Babic’s family has been informed. Pursuant to his authority under the Tribunal’s Statute and Rules of Detention, the Tribunal President, Judge Fausto Pocar, has ordered an internal inquiry. The Tribunal sentenced Milan Babic to 13 years imprisonment for crimes committed against non-Serb civilians in the self-proclaimed Serb political entity in eastern Croatia (the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina, which later became the Republic of Serbian Krajina). After the Appeals Chamber confirmed Milan Babic’s sentence, he was transferred to serve his sentence abroad. Milan Babic, who held a number of high-level political positions in the Croatian Serb entity including the presidency, pleaded guilty on 27 January 2004 to participating in a plan to forcibly and permanently remove the non-Serb population from this area. The crimes he admitted to include murder, deportation or forcible transfer, and unlawful imprisonment of non-Serb civilians, as well as the destruction of their property. At the time of his death, Milan Babic was testifying in the case against Milan Martic, another former high-level official of the Croatian Serb political entity charged with crimes against non-Serb civilians. Milan Babic began his testimony on 15 February 2006. He had previously testified in the case against Slobodan Miloševic from 18 November until 9 December 2002. His, is one of only three cases of the Tribunal summarized in Hospitals & Asylums (HA) it reads, Milan Babic v. Secretary:

The Sentencing Judgment in Prosecutor v. Milan Babic Case No. IT-03-72-S was rendered on June 29, 2004. The prosecution found that a lack of moral strength prevented this dentist turned Commander-in-chief between 1991-1992 from standing against injustice committed against non-Serb civilians. He was sentenced to 13 years. Although Babic initially participated in the Tribunal as a witness who needed protection the Tribuanl indicted him on 6 November 2003 the Prosecution filed an indictment against Babic which was confirmed on 17 November 2003. On 26 November 2003 Babic surrendered to the Tribunal. The Indictment alleged that Babic, acting individually or in concert with other members of a joint criminal enterprise (“JCE”) committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation, or execution of persecutions of the Croats and other non-Serb civilian populations in Krajina from August 1991 to February 1992. For his acts and omissions the Indictment charged Babic with persecution ( count 1, a crime against humanity), murder (count 2, violations of the laws or customs of war), cruel treatment (count 3, violations of the laws or customs of war), wanton destruction of villages or devastation not justified by military necessity (count 4, violations of the laws or customs of war), and destruction or wilful damage to institutions dedicated to education or religion (count 5, violations of the laws or customs of war).

On 27 January 2004 Babic pleaded guilty to persecutions on political, racial, and religious grounds, a crime against humanity punishable under Article 5(h) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal. In the period of the Indictment, from about 1 August 1991 to 15 February 1992 Serb forces established a regime of persecutions designed to drive the Croat and other non-Serb civilian populations from these territories. After the take-over, in cooperation with the local Serb authorities, the Serb forces established a regime of persecutions designed to drive the Croat and other non-Serb civilian populations from these territories. The regime, which was based on political, racial, or religious grounds, included the extermination or murder of hundreds of Croat and other non-Serb civilians in Dubica, Cerovljanji, Bacin, Saborsko, Poljanak, Lipovaca, and the neighbouring hamlets of Skabrnja, Nadin, and Bruska in Croatia. With respect to the murders charged in the Indictment, Babic realised from his own observations that such killings were the likely outcome of the campaign of persecutions. Babic claimed that although he was aware that crimes such as imprisonment deportation or forcible transfer, and the destruction of property were being committed in the targeted territories, he did not know the details and the scale of the events that were occurring there at the time. In relation to the murders charged in paragraph 15(a) of the indictment, the parties state that Babic was not aware of the specific murders listed in the Indictment but was aware that civilians were killed in the course of the forcible removal of non-Serb civilians from the area. Babic did not react appropriately or distance himself from the JCE when he learned about the killings which as he admits were the foreseeable result of the JCE. Babic’s continued participation in the crime of persecution, to the extent described above, displayed an intention to participate in the persecutory acts and awareness that he would incur responsibility for crimes which he came to know about.

The crime of persecution extended over a relatively limited period of time and a large geographical area, and involved the murder of more than 200 civilians, including women and elderly persons, the confinement and imprisonment of several hundred civilians in inhumane conditions, the forcible transfer or deportation of thousands of civilians, and the destruction of homes and public or private property. The mitigating factors are that Babic “had no de facto control over the forces (neither military nor police) that committed the crimes. Within the joint criminal enterprise he had a rather limited role. Babic should not be construed as a leader of the joint criminal enterprise. He was not an architect of the plan. He shared the intent of the leaders for a limited period of time and had very limited, if any, influence on the actual leaders of the criminal enterprise.” Babic held and remained in high political positions counts as an aggravating circumstance. Babic testified voluntarily in the Milosevic proceedings despite the fact that he was incriminating himself. This testimony provided far-reaching insight in the decision-making, the operation, and the plans of the JCE around Slobodan Milosevic, which no other insider witness had been able to provide so far. Babic was the first indictee in the Tribunal’s history for whom the issuance of an arrest warrant proved unnecessary. Babic’s participation in the crimes described in part II of this judgment was limited because he had no de facto control over the military forces involved in the commission of the crimes. To the Prosecution, Babic’s role in the totality of the crimes as they happened in Croatia was of a secondary nature, in comparison with the leading members of the JCE. This position was supported by the Defence during the sentencing hearing. The Prosecution further submitted that Babic became a politician out of a desire to save the Serbs in Croatia, that as long as he served the other participants of the JCE loyally and obediently he was promoted and kept in his position, and that as soon as he opposed the politics of Slobodan Milosevic and his supporters, he immediately lost his office and was replaced, because he was not crucial for the functioning of the JCE but rather a disposable tool of the leaders of the JCE. The Defence submits that Babic expressed true remorse both through his words and, more importantly, through his deeds subsequent to his criminal behaviour.

Babic admitted, I come before this Tribunal with a deep sense of shame and remorse. I have allowed myself to take part in the worst kind of persecution of people simply because they were Croats and not Serbs. Innocent people were persecuted; innocent people were evicted forcibly from their houses; and innocent people were killed. Even when I learned what had happened, I kept silent. Even worse, I continued in my office, and I became personally responsible for the inhumane treatment of innocent people. These crimes and my participation therein can never be justified. I’m speechless when I have to express the depth of my remorse for what I have done and for the effect that my sins have had on the others. I can only hope that by expressing the truth, by admitting to my guilt, and expressing the remorse can serve as an example to those who still mistakenly believe that such inhuman acts can ever be justified. Only truth can give the opportunity for the Serbian people to relieve itself of its collective burden of guilt. Only an admission of guilt on my part makes it possible for me to take responsibility for all the wrongs that I have done. The Defence further notes that because of his cooperation with the Tribunal, Babic and his family live in fear of violent retribution from those who view them as traitors and they will never be able to return to their homeland. According to the Defence, Babic will also have to serve any period of imprisonment under high security conditions that will render his incarceration more isolated than that of other convicted persons. The Prosecution submits that prior to the armed conflict in Croatia, Babic was a dentist, a good father and husband, and a respected member of the Knin community with no prior criminal record. The Trial Chamber accepts that the following factors establish that a reduced sentence is appropriate: Babic’s admission of guilt and the promptness thereof; his voluntary contact with the Prosecution prior to confirmation of the indictment against him and his substantial cooperation with the Prosecution not only in his own case but also in other trials before this Tribunal; his voluntary appearance after confirmation of the indictment against him; his showing of remorse; and his family and personal situation.

The Secretary finds that the 13 year Sentence is far too long for Mr. Babic who was a politician who took criminal responsibility during a bad time when political leadership was extremely corrupt. Although guilty of persecution Mr. Babic attempted to resist the state mandated policy and ultimately was forced to resign for his resistance to war propaganda. Mr. Babic’s alleged criminal responsibility appears to be a matter of professional responsibility during a time of war that he discharged with a conscious. Mr. Babic resigned as Commander in Chief when it became apparent that he would not be permitted to desist in the commission of these crimes that weighted very heavily upon this former dentist. Mr. Babic’s cooperation with the court and remorse seem to be his primarily characteristics and there is almost no chance that this former official who was remorseful even before going to court would ever commit or incite the commission of any of these crimes in the future. The International Court of Justice is called upon to modify this judgment under Art. 100 of the Rules of Court in one of two ways, (1) by acquitting and granting Asylum to Milan Babic and his family in the spirit of the Judgment of 20 November 1950 or (2) reducing his sentence to something correlated to his length of term in office August 1991 to February 1992 such as 6 months. The Tribunal should immediately remove him from the excessive deprivations suffered by an innocent man.

In conclusion, the evidence regarding the cause of death of Milan Babic on 5 March 2006 is so insufficient as to warrant a wrongful death investigation, into the Tribunal, this is not their first death in custody. For my part, I wrote in Babic’s defense and found him to be the sort of reform minded and auto retiring official that I wish we had in the USA however despite several petitions for remuneration for the work to relieve the accused of the burden of representing himself wherefore $1,920 was requested for 24 hours work in accordance with the Tribunal’s rates of pay. The Tribunal did not honor this petition and in fact immediately became embroiled in the international conspiracy of the USA to enslave Bobby Fischer for attending a chess tournament in Yugoslavia. It was at this time that the US Vice President Dick Cheney intercepted neutral information submitted to the 9-11 Commission and was witnessed inciting genocide in then first breech of the Termination of Emergency of the US President by mobilizing a California military base to hunt Al Sadr, who had already been acquitted. In the press report there was a strange reference to a geographically related attempt to put riacin, a deadly toxin, in a baby food jar, in Irvine, CA, where some of my family lives. I felt that the baby food poison was in fact a reference the recently reviewed case of Babic that the Vice President metaphorically refused to eat on the rationale that retiring and reforming for a genocidal official is not in their best interest, they must seize and hold power with a superiority of weapons and preponderance of crime much in the same way the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia undermined and assaulted Serbia & Montenegro after the Dayton Peace Accords were successful and continues to enslave retired national leaders while the nation languishes in the most abject poverty on the European continent, while the criminal judges are heavily financed. The timing of this death coincides with the service of the Constitution in Crisis: Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War HA-3-3-06 to the US Congress that was accompanied with a theft from the author’s mail of his social security check that he needs to pay the rent and typical of the sabotage of the local spy Prosecutor v. Joe Deters HA-30-12-05 was accompanied with a homicide in reference to a case. To make a decision on the accepted facts of the case, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is negligent in paying Hospitals & Asylums (HA) to the detriment of Babic’s mental health and defense to such an extent that it proved fatal. To avoid being stereotyped with homicidal, slaving, money laudering and torturing people who call themselves prosecutors and judges around the world the International Criminal Tribunal is highly obligated to pay $2,000 to the author, for $2,400 the case can be reviewed and updated for the political integrity of Serbia & Montenegro, criminal defense as a carrer is out of the question as the result of the implication for international security for someone stationed in the USA, however the forgiveness is true. The newsletter of the tribunal is received however due to the criminal nature of the case the author awaits the payment of $2,000 or $2,400, less social security taxes to Serbia & Montenegro, in the mail to register the Tribunal as a Member.

Sanders, Tony J. Hospitals & Asylums. Slobodan Milosevic v. International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. HA-25-12-04 www.title24uscode.org/Yugoslavia.doc