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world news Diaranson 9 Juni 2021

Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic loses genocide appeal

(AP) — Ratko Mladic, the ecutor who finally brought the war.
military chief known as both Karadzic and Mladic to
the “Butcher of Bosnia” justice, said Mladic “ranks Mladic’s toxic legacy contin-
for orchestrating geno- among the most notorious ues to divide Bosnia and his
cide, crimes against hu- war criminals in modern dark shadow has spread far
manity and war crimes in history” who abused his po- beyond the Balkans.
the Balkan nation’s 1992- sition of power to commit
95 war, lost his final legal crimes including genocide. To Serbs in Bosnia, he is a
battle Tuesday when U.N. war hero who fought to pro-
judges rejected his ap- “Mladic should be con- tect his people. To Bosniaks,
peals and affirmed his life demned by all responsible mostly Muslims, he will al-
sentence. officials in the former Yugo- ways be a villain responsible
slavia and around the world,” for their wartime suffering
The ruling involving his 2017 Brammertz said. “His name and losses.
convictions and sentence should be consigned to the
closed a grim chapter in Eu- list of history’s most depraved Nedziba Salihovic, who lost goslavia by the then-ruling truth,” he added.
ropean history that included and barbarous figures.” her son and husband in the pro-Western government of
the continent’s first genocide bloodshed, watched the court Serbia. The shadow of Mladic and
since World War II — the U.S. President Joe Biden said hearing on a large screen in Karadzic has spread far be-
1995 Srebrenica massacre the “historic judgment shows Srebrenica. The judgment was wel- yond the Balkans. They have
of more than 8,000 Muslim that those who commit hor- comed as “an important af- been revered by foreign far-
men and boys. rific crimes will be held ac- “This means a lot to me, my firmation of the rule of law” right supporters for their
countable. It also reinforces heart is racing,” she said. “He by Kathryne Bomberger, bloody wartime campaigns.
The now-frail Mladic, of- our shared resolve to prevent was punished. It is not im- director-general of the In-
ten belligerent at his court future atrocities from occur- portant where he’ll end up ternational Commission on The Australian who shot dead
appearances in The Hague, ring anywhere in the world.” (to serve his sentence). Like Missing Persons that helped dozens of Muslim worship-
showed no reaction oth- mothers of Srebrenica, he’ll locate and identify victims of pers in Christchurch, New
er than a scowl as Presid- “My thoughts today are with spend the rest of his life with- atrocities in Bosnia. Zealand, in 2019 was believed
ing Judge Prisca Matimba all the surviving families of out his family.” to be inspired by the wartime
Nyambe of Zambia said the the many victims of Mladic’s “Ramifications of the judg- Bosnian Serb leaders, as was
panel had dismissed, by a atrocities. We can never erase Bosnian Serb separatist lead- ment in case of Mladic and Anders Breivik, the Norwe-
vote of 4-1, his appeals of the tragedy of their deaths, er Milorad Dodik blasted in previous cases, such as that gian white supremacist who
convictions for crimes in- but I hope today’s judgment the final verdict as “selective of Radovan Karadzic, go be- killed 77 people in Norway
cluding genocide, murder, provides some solace to all justice” and “satanization of yond the Western Balkans. in 2011.
extermination and terror for those who are grieving,” a Serbs” which will only deep- This gives hope to survivors The U.N. tribunal that ini-
atrocities throughout the war statement from Biden said. en the existing ethnic divide of atrocity, including fami- tially indicted Mladic has
that killed more than 100,000 in Bosnia so many years after lies of the missing and disap- since shut its doors. His ap-
and left millions homeless. The court also rejected an ap- the war. peared persons around the peal and other legal issues
peal by prosecutors of Mlad- world, that justice can be de- left over from the tribunal
The 79-year-old former gen- ic’s acquittal on one other “The court did not prove livered,” Bomberger said. were being dealt with by the
eral is the last major figure to count of genocide linked to Mladic’s direct guilt,” Dodik U.N.’s International Residu-
face justice from the conflict ethnic purges early in the said. “It is clear that geno- Amnesty International’s Eu- al Mechanism for Criminal
that ended more than a quar- war. cide in Srebrenica never hap- rope Director Nils Muižniek Tribunals, which is housed
ter century ago. pened.” said the ruling “sends a pow- in the same building as the
As commander of the Bos- erful message around the now-defunct court for the
His former political chief, nian Serb Army, the once- Mladic’s son, Darko, who world that impunity cannot, former Yugoslavia.
ex-Bosnian Serb President swaggering Mladic led troops was part of his defense team, and will not, be tolerated.”
Radovan Karadzic, already is responsible for atrocities said in The Hague: ”This Outside the court, another
serving a life sentence after ranging from “ethnic cleans- traveling circus (the tribu- Nedzad Avdic, who survived mother from Srebrenica,
being convicted for the same ing” campaigns to the siege of nal) has finished its job like a mass execution in Srebreni- Munira Subasic had a mes-
crimes. Former Yugoslav Sarajevo and the war’s bloody it started. The general had no ca, said he was satisfied “even sage for young people in Ser-
President Slobodan Milos- climax in the 1995 Srebrenica chance of a fair trial.” though nothing can erase bia and the Serb part of Bos-
evic, who was accused of fo- massacre. what we’ve been through nor nia.
menting the ethnic conflicts Mladic was first indicted in bring back our dead.”
that tore apart the Balkans in In Sarajevo, applause broke July 1995. After the war in She urged them to study
the 1990s, died in a U.N. cell out among those watching Bosnia ended, he went into The judgment “will make the court’s judgments and
in 2006 before judges at his the proceedings. Mayor Ben- hiding and was finally arrest- denying the crimes more dif- indictments, and “stop hat-
trial could reach verdicts. jamina Karic called it “a day ed in 2011 and handed over ficult. This and other verdicts ing and create a better future
of justice” for Sarajevo, Bos- to the International Criminal will be the starting point for for themselves and our chil-
Serge Brammertz, the pros- nia and innocent victims of Tribunal for the former Yu- anyone who cares about dren.”

Amazon city shuts down amid attacks over trafficker's death

(AP) — The Brazilian Amazon’s ficking organization as retribution police during a confrontation Sat- the entrance of a police station near
biggest city ordered schools for the killing, the Amazonas state’s urday night during an operation in the port of Manaus, the newspaper
closed and suspended public government said. Twenty-one vehi- the Redençao neighborhood, west of O Globo reported. It said one attack-
transportation Monday amid a cles were burned, and Gov. Wilson Manaus, local authorities said. er disembarked and threw a grenade,
wave of vandalism and violence Lima on Sunday requested deploy- but it didn’t detonate.
that has followed the death of ment of the national guard. In broad daylight on Sunday, assail-
an alleged leader of a drug traf- ants threw gasoline bombs at bus So far, 29 people suspected of car-
ficking ring in a shootout with Amazonas state’s security secretary, stations and banks and also burned rying out the attacks have been ar-
police. Louismar Bonates, said the attacks tires, according to images shown rested, the Amazonas state’s security
were ordered from prison in re- on television. Fearing attacks, shop- secretariat said. Of them, 27 directly
Dozens of buses, public build- sponse to the death of alleged traf- keepers shut their stores. participated in the violence and the
ings, banks and personal vehicles in ficker Erick Batista Costa, known other two were involved in planning
Manaus were targeted by a drug traf- as “Dadinho.” He was killed by the Aboard speedboats, criminals shot at the attacks, the secretariat said.