Croatian president laments ex-general’s death after Yugoslav war crimes tribunal conviction

Croatia’s president says the nation has been “deeply struck in the heart” by the death of an ex-Croat general who died shortly after claiming to have drunk poison as the Yugoslav tribunal convicted him of war crimes during Bosnia’s 1992-95 conflict. Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic said in an address on Thursday that Slobodan Praljak “would rather take his own life than live as a convict for the acts he firmly believed he hadn’t committed,” AP reports. Grabar Kitarovic has denounced the court ruling, which linked Croatia’s wartime leadership with a plan to create a Croat mini-state in Bosnia.