No sentence enough for ‘Butcher of Bosnia’
SREBRENICA: Bosnian Muslims who lost loved ones in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre said no punishment was enough for Ratko Mladic, the ex-Bosnian Serb wartime commander jailed for life for genocide.
Mladic, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia”, was convicted by a United Nations tribunal on 10 counts of war crimes, including the siege of Sarajevo, in which more than 10,000 civilians died from shelling and sniper attacks, and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of non-Serbs during the 1992 to 1995 conflict.
“Can there ever be adequate punishment for someone who committed so many crimes? It would be too many (crimes) even for 300 years, let alone three days,” said Vasva Smajlovic, 74, 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 shot dead, execution-style, after Mladic assured United Nations peacekeepers and residents that no harm would befall them after his forces seized the town.
“I try to count my dead all the time. I count to 50, and then I’m not able to count anymore,” Smajlovic said tearfully while watching a live telecast of the verdict.
“No words can describe how I feel. I am angry. All this comes too late,” Smajlovic said.
Her sister-in-law felt, however, justice was served with Mladic’s conviction, even if it came 22 years after the war.
“Nothing can compensate for our pain, but it is important that justice is done,” said Bida Smajlovic, who last saw her husband when he tried to flee Srebrenica through the woods in July 1995. His remains were later found in a mass grave.
On July 11, 1995, Mladic’s ultranationalist forces separated men and boys from women and took them away in buses or on foot to be shot within days. It was Europe’s worst single atrocity since World War 2.
Wednesday’s verdict, the last major case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia after 24 years of work, 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.”
“I hope this verdict will bring about a sobering effect in Bosnia.” Reuters