GUILTY OF GENOCIDE
Life imprisonment for Bosnian Serb commander
Ratko Mladic was yesterday found guilty of genocide and war crimes over atrocities during the Bosnian war, including the 1995 massacre of unarmed Muslims at Srebrenica.
Nicknamed the Butcher of Bosnia, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army was instrumental in the mass murder, capture, displacement and degradation of thousands of Muslims during the 1990s war. He has been sentenced to life in prison.
As he entered the courtroom looking thinner and older than in his previous public appearance, Mladic smiled and gave a thumbs-up to the cameras.
The grimace on his face for the duration of the hearing betrayed that this was unmistakably the threatening figure who, on the first day of his trial, drew his finger across his throat while staring at a mother of one of the thousands killed in Srebrenica.
Lawyers for Mladic, 74, tried to delay the hearing saying he was suffering from poor health as the result of a series of strokes.
Shortly after the proceedings turned to focus on his personal responsibility for the crimes committed, proceedings were paused for Mladic to use the toilet. He also received medical attention to monitor his blood pressure.
The judge and defence lawyer had a debate over whether proceedings should be halted, or to skip straight to the judgment.
Red-faced, Mladic stood up and began shouting and pushed away the two guards flanking him.
He was removed from the court and moved to a side room where he was able to watch the rest of the proceedings through a screen.
UN judges in The Hague yesterday found him guilty of 10 of the 11 charges. He was charged with two counts of genocide. He was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, but was not for genocide in the other towns and villages.
His charges included war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in 1990.
Mladic was found responsible for the 1995 massacre of almost 8,000 unarmed Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, and for the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, which claimed an estimated 10,000 lives. He was also found guilty of taking UN personnel hostage.
Earlier in the session, when the judge referred to detainees being forced to rape or commit degrading acts with one another, Mladic shook his head and appeared to let out a small, defensive laugh.
The judge went on to outline how children as young as 12 were raped by Mladic’s forces.
He said that the aim of Mladic’s forces was to make Srebrenica disappear with the intent of forcibly removing the Bosnian Muslim population, thereby turning the land into Serbian territory.
Many thousands of residents, including children, were removed never to return. Healthy men and boys were not abducted but executed over five days.
Mladic pursed his lips as the judge ruled that the events in Srebrenica constituted forcible transfer, extermination and genocide.
As the final verdict was delivered from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the victims and survivors of the civil war moved a step closer to closure.
Mladic is the last of Europe’s high-profile war crime suspects to come under the scrutiny of The Hague court.
Hasan Hasanovic, a survivor of the Srebrenica genocide, lost his father, twin brother and uncle during their escape. He came under Serbian gunfire while unarmed with his friends and family.
“Their primary concern was that we were Muslim,” Mr Hasanovic said. “They wanted us dead.”
He walked for five days along with thousands trying to flee to safety more than 100 kilometres away in Tuzla. He never found out what happened to his family and lives in fear that they were tortured to death.
“Mladic’s verdict is of historical importance to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the rest of the world,” said Mr Hasanovic, who has returned and is raising a family in Srebrenica and working at the memorial centre.
“Unfortunately, the tribunal failed to prove that genocide occurred in other municipalities except for Srebrenica. Victims know that what they survived in Prijedor, Visegrad, Bratunac, Foca, Rogatica, Vlasenica and Zvornik was a genocide in its conception and that everything culminated with a genocide in Srebrenica.”
Resad Trbonja, who now works with the charity Remembering Srebrenica, said: “I could go on about the siege, about the people killed right next to me, about people decapitated by shrapnel, about hospitals running on no supplies, my experiences of donating blood just to get an extra can of beef for my family.
“But the white tombstones in and around the city marking the resting place of Sarajevans who died too young, who died at Mladic’s hand, tell the story forever.”
Caught in 2011 after 16 years on the run, the man blamed for the worst atrocities in Europe since the Nazi era has been the centre of a trial lasting 523 days, where almost 10,000 exhibits were admitted in evidence and almost 600 witnesses called.
Mladic, Radovan Karadzic and former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic were among the top leaders, who prosecutors said formed the core of a joint criminal enterprise to create a Greater Serbia.
Milosevic died four years into his genocide trial before a verdict could be delivered.
Karadzic, who became the president of Republika Srpska during the Bosnian War, was sentenced to 40 years in jail after being found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and breaches of laws or customs of war.
Their primary concern was that we were Muslim – they wanted us dead HASAN HASANOVIC Survivor of Srebrenica massacre