War Crimes Trial Witness Found Dead

Milan Babic, the Serb leader of a rebel republic in Croatia and one of the key figures in the early Balkan wars of the 1990s, committed suicide in prison where he was serving a 13-year sentence, the U.N. war crimes tribunal said Monday.

Babic was found dead Sunday evening in his cell at the U.N. detention center in Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague, said a tribunal statement.

Babic was a ranking Croatian Serb leader when the Serb minority revolted after Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991. He was backed by then-President Slobodan Milosevic.

Babic later was a pivotal witness at Milosevic's war crimes trial, which is continuing in The Hague.

Babic's family was informed Sunday after the chief medical officer of the center confirmed the cause of death was suicide. A tribunal judge immediately ordered an inquiry.