UN court convicts Mladic of genocide
‘Butcher of Bosnia’ sentenced to life in jail
THE HAGUE: UN judges yesterday sentenced former Bosnian Serbian commander Ratko Mladic to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of genocide and war crimes in the brutal Balkans conflicts over two decades ago.
The trial of the man dubbed “The Butcher of Bosnia” was the last before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and comes as the court prepares to close its doors next month.
The court found him guilty on 10 counts including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-95 war that killed 100,000 people and displaced 2.2 million as ethnic rivalries tore apart Yugoslavia. But they found him not guilty of genocide in the municipalities.
“For having committed these crimes, the chamber sentences Mr Ratko Mladic to life imprisonment,” presiding judge Alphons Orie said, adding the crimes were “amongst the most heinous known to humankind”.
After rumours he would not attend the hearing, the former general, 74, who once cut a swathe of fear against Bosnia, gave a thumbs-up as he entered the courtroom in The Hague.
But in extraordinary scenes he was ordered to be dragged from the court, when in an outburst he accused the judges of lying, after they refused to adjourn because he had high-blood pressure.
“The circumstances were brutal. Those who tried to defend their homes were met with ruthless force. Mass executions occurred and some victims succumbed after being beaten,” Mr Orie said, outlining the facts of the case against Mladic.
“Many of the perpetrators who had captured Bosnian Muslims showed little or no respect for human life, or dignity.”
Now 74, Mladic is the highest military commander to be judged by the tribunal set up in 1993 and based in The Hague.
Prosecutors accused Mladic and his political counterpart Radovan Karadzic of seeking through ethnic cleansing to “permanently remove” Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from areas claimed by Bosnian Serbs.
Caught after 16 years on the run, Mladic faces two genocide charges including for the 1995 massacre in northeastern Srebrenica, where troops under his command slaughtered almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
The killings, in which the victims were marched away, shot in the back and dumped in mass graves, was one of the darkest episodes in the conflict, and has been called the worst atrocity to take place on European soil since World War II.
In a complex case spread over five years, almost 600 witnesses testified and more than 10,000 exhibits were presented.
But defence lawyers — who in past days filed a flurry of requests to have their ailing client’s health assessed — have slammed his trial as “political” and said it failed to reconcile ethnic groups in Bosnia.
They insist he is “not a monster” and have called for his acquittal.
Having suffered at least three strokes, Mladic could die at any moment, his lawyers said. Rumours whirled on the eve of the verdict that he might not even show up in court.
His ill-health has left him with “part paralysis of the entire right side of his body,” lawyer Dragan Ivetic added.
The stocky military leader, who saluted judges at his first appearance in 2011 shortly after his arrest and deportation from Serbia, has always denied the charges.
For victims of the atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serb army however, the time has come for Mladic to finally face justice.
Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica, who said she had begged Mladic to spare her son, said the truth had to be unveiled.
“We need truth, we need justice. Without justice there’s no trust, without trust there’s no reconciliation,” she said.
In the northwestern Bosnian village of Zecovi, Fikret Bacic said he did not care whether Mladic is convicted or not.
“For me, Mladic is already dead anyway, the only thing that interests me is finding my wife, my children, my mother,” he said.
Six-year-old Nermina, 12-year-old Nermin and their mother Minka were executed on July 25 1992 by Bosnian Serb forces.
They remain among some 7,000 people still missing in Bosnia.