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November 24, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
"Butcher of Bosnia" Mladic sentenced to life for Srebrenica genocide
five counts of crimes against humanity and four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war in the most significant war crimes trial in Europe since the Nuremberg Tribunal.
“For having committed these crimes the chamber has sentenced him to life in prison,” judge Alphons Orie said at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
The Srebrenica killings were conducted under the command of Mladic, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic’s military chief. Some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed and 25,000 women and children were deported from the UN-designated ‘safe area’ of Srebrenica.
Last year, The Hague tribunal sentenced Karadzic to 40 years in jail after finding him guilty of geno- cide and nine other charges, but he was acquitted by the tribunal of a broader charge of genocide in connection with Bosnian municipalities.
As the trial, which has lasted more than four years, reached its conclusion, Mladic sat silently while the judge read the council’s conclusions, but his facial expression showed his disagreement and he tapped his face with his fingers.
As Mladic had asked to go to the toilet, the judge gave a five-minute break, which had to be extended as the defendant had not returned to courtroom. Finally, after the session was resumed, Mladic’s lawyer has asked for a postponement or shorter announcement of the verdict, claiming that Mlad- ic’s blood pressure was dangerously high.
After Orie refused, claiming that doctors’ assess- ments did not suggest that the defendant’s health was endangered, Mladic stood up yelling in Serbi-
an “It’s a lie!” He refused to stop shouting and the judge ordered his removal from the courtroom. He was then placed in another room where he was able to watch and listen to the verdict.
During the trial that took 530 days spread over more than four years, video recordings were shown of Mladic giving orders to his troops as the army-age Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) men and teenage boys were separated from their families, shortly before the executions in Srebrenica began.
The ICTY heard from 591 witnesses and examined nearly 10,000 exhibits concerning 106 separate crimes.
There were strong reactions within Bosnia, with Bosniak women who lost their loved ones in the Sarajevo killings crying after hearing the sen- tence, but also expressing their disappointment that Mladic was not found guilty of genocide in the rest of the country.
Munira Subasic, the chairwoman of Mothers of Srebrenica, said that now that the genocide has officially been recognised, the NGO will sue Serbia and Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb entity.
The international community hailed the verdict as just. “The murderer of Srebrenica has been brought to justice. Those who value the rule of law in war will welcome this. Those who bled in the Bosnian wars have retribution. Those in Bosnia who understand there is no peace without justice can now look more confidently to the future,” said former UN envoy Paddy Ashdown in a Twitter post.
But while for Bosniaks Mladic is the personifica- tion of evil, he is still looked up to by many Bosnian Serbs. Residents of several Bosnian cities, including Srebrenica, woke up on November 22 to see posters hailing Mladic as a hero, and after the verdict was announced Bosnian Serb leaders claimed it once again showed that there was no justice for them.
“This sentence is a slap in the face of the Serb people and for Serb people. General Ratko Mladic