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 GEC
December 29, 2010
Associated Press

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