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(Amsterdam) A Croatian Serb convicted of ethnic cleansing after leading a brutal revolt during the Balkan wars committed suicide in prison, the UN tribunal said Monday, a setback for prosecutors counting on his testimony in other war crimes cases.

Milan Babic showed no sign of despair before he killed himself Sunday evening, a tribunal spokeswoman said. But his suicide came just three weeks after he reaffirmed his remorse for his crimes, telling a tribunal that his guilt was a "pain that I have to live with for the rest of my life."

Once a close associate of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, Babic was considered an "insider" with special knowledge of the workings of Milosevic's government, and prosecutors put him on the stand for three weeks of dramatic testimony against his former mentor in 2002.

His death will be a setback for UN prosecutors who had planned to summon him as a witness in as many as three more war crimes cases. He had agreed to testify against his former comrades as part of a plea bargain.

Babic, 50, who was sentenced in 2004 to 13 years imprisonment, was found dead at 6:30 p.m. at the UN detention centre in Scheveningen, a few kilometres from the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

His body was discovered during a routine half-hourly monitoring of his cell, said tribunal spokeswoman Alexandra Milenov.

"He gave no indication he was contemplating such a move," Milenov said. "There was nothing unusual in his demeanour."

The tribunal said it was launching an inquiry.

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[ 07 March 2006: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]