Serbian legislator dies

serbianna

Dec 30, 2010
Vladan Batic, an opposition leader of the popular revolt in Serbia that ousted President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, died Wednesday. He was 61.
Batic, who also served as the justice minister in the pro-Western, post-Milosevic government, died after a “long and difficult disease,” Serbia’s parliament said.
No other details were published, but Batic is known to have battled throat cancer for years.
He died as a lawmaker in Serbia’s current 250-member assembly, and the lawmakers observed a minute of silence in Batic’s honor during Wednesday’s session.
Serbia’s president and prime minister both offered their condolences to Batic’s family.
President Boris Tadic’s office said he was “deeply saddened” by Batic’s death, while premier Mirko Cvetkovic said Batic “left a significant mark in Serbia’s democratic life.”
Another ally, former culture minister Branislav Lecic, described Batic as an “honest and hardworking man who dedicated his life to the democratization” of Serbia.
As the leader of his Christian Democratic Party of Serbia, Batic was active in the movement that opposed the late Milosevic throughout his decade-long autocratic rule in 1990s.
Batic was one of more than a dozen opposition leaders who joined forces in 2000 with an aim of forming a united front against Milosevic.
The so-called Democratic Opposition of Serbia movement finally won an election against Milosevic in 2000, and forced him to step down in an uprising.
After Milosevic’s fall, the former opposition leaders formed a reformist government that restored ties with the West and extradited Milosevic to a U.N. war crimes tribunal in 2001. Milosevic died in the custody of the Netherlands-based court in 2006.
Batic, a lawyer, is survived by a wife and three daughters.
JOVANA GECDecember 29, 2010Associated Press

read more: serbiannahttp://serbianna.com/news/?p=6778

bio:
Vladan Batić (Serbian: Владан Батић; 27 July 1949 – 29 December 2010)[1] was a Serbian politician. He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. He was the Minister of Justice in the Serbian Government from 2000 to 2003. It 2001, Batić announced that warrants would be made for the arrests of former persons in power before the 5 October uprising of 2000 who were suspected of misconduct through abuse of power. It was this campaign which eventually led to the surrender of Slobodan Milošević to police as an alternative to forced arrest,[citation needed] and the first step to his extradition to The Hague.
In 2004 he ran for Serbian Presidency in the election.[2] At the time of his death Batić was the President of the Christian Democratic Party of Serbia and since 2007 a member of parliament as a part of his party's bloc formed with their coalition partner the Liberal Democratic Party.
Batić reappeared in international news media spotlight when he testified before a Nicosia court that billions of dollars belonging to the Serbia had been smuggled out of the country by the ousted Milošević administration during the UN sanctions on the country, by use of offshore corporations in Cyprus registered by the former law office of the Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos. Batić had been pursuing the affair since 2002.[3]
Batić died on 29 December 2010 from throat cancer.[1]
read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladan_Bati%C4%87