‘Butcher of Bosnia’ found guilty of genocide, to be jailed for life
THE HAGUE: Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army and one-time fugitive from international justice, has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by a UN tribunal at The Hague.
More than 20 years after the Srebrenica massacre and his first indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the soldier nicknamed the “Butcher of Bosnia” has been found guilty of multiple offences.
Mladic, now 74, was chief of staff of Bosnian Serb forces from 1992 until 1996, during the ferocious civil wars and ethnic cleansing that followed the break-up of the Yugoslav state.
He faced 11 charges, two of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and four of violations of the laws or customs of war. He was cleared of one count of genocide, but found guilty of all other charges.
Delivering the verdicts, judge Alphons Orie said Mladic’s crimes “rank among the most heinous known to humankind and include genocide and extermination”.
The trial in The Hague, which took 530 days spread over more than four years, is arguably the most significant war crimes case in Europe since the Nuremberg tribunal, in part because of the scale of the atrocities involved.
The trial is one of the last to be heard by the ICTY, which is due to be dissolved at the end of this year.