No punishment enough for Mladic: Survivors of purge
SREBRENICA: Bosnian Muslims who lost loved ones in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre said that no punishment was enough for Ratko Mladic, the ex-bosnian Serb wartime commander jailed for life for genocide.
Dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia”, Mladic was on Wednesday convicted by a UN tribunal on 10 counts of war crimes during the 1992-95 conflict.
“Can there ever be adequate punishment for someone who committed so many crimes?” said Vasva Smajlovic, referring to the Srebrenica slaughter in July 1995. Her husband, son-in-law and other relatives were among the 8,000 Muslim men and boys taken away and killed executionstyle after Mladic assured UN peacekeepers and local residents that no harm would befall them after his forces seized the town.
It was Europe’s worst single atrocity since World War 2.
Wednesday’s verdict stirred tension in a region still scarred by the 1990s Balkans conflagration.
Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who frequently threatens the secession of the Serb region from Bosnia, said the tribunal’s judgement of Mladic only proved its bias against the Serbs.
But Bakir Izetbegovic, the Muslim Bosniak member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, said: “No people, including Serbs, should call Mladic a hero, ..., glorify criminals and decorate war criminals.”