Serb Chief Says Sorry to Croats

A Serbian rebel leader from the early stages of the 90s wars in the former Yugoslavia was convicted of ethnic persecution yesterday after delivering an unprecedented apology to his "brother Croats".

Milan Babic was a Croatian Serb dentist and the political leader of the Serb insurrection against Croatian rule in 1991. In a plea bargain with the prosecution that was accepted by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague yesterday, he was found guilty on one count of crimes against humanity. Four graver charges, including murder, were dropped.

Before being found guilty, Babic delivered an unusual declaration of remorse and apologised to the Croatian victims of the ethnic cleansing he helped orchestrate.

"I allowed myself to participate in the persecution of the worst kind against people only because they were Croats, not Serbs. I ask my brother Croats to forgive us, their brother Serbs," he said. "I stand before this tribunal with a deep sense of shame and remorse."

Sentencing was adjourned until April.

The other important Serbian war leader to have pleaded guilty and voiced remorse is Biljana Plavsic, once a member of the Bosnian Serb wartime leadership. Her guilty plea led to an 11-year prison term. The prosecution is also demanding 11 years for Babic, though the sentence could be shorter.

Just over a year ago, before being indicted, Babic gave evidence against the former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

Mr Milosevic was Babic's patron in the run-up to the wars, but unseated him as Croatian Serb leader in early 1992, when Babic opposed Mr Milosevic's acceptance of a UN truce that consolidated his position in Croatia.

The US is promoting plea bargains as a means of speeding up the process at the tribunal, and Babic is expected to testify for the prosecution in future cases.