‘Butcher of Bosnia’ who oversaw Srebrenica slaughter

welcome the sentence, main picture. Graves at Potocari, left. Mladic’s courtroom outburst, centre, and the commander of the Bosnian Serb army in Sarajevo in 1993, right Ratko Mladic became known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” after commanding troops in the worst atrocities in postwar Europe during the Bosnian war.

The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995.

The main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Herzeg-bosnia, which were led and supplied by Serbia and Croatia respectively.

The conflict saw Mladic and his men carry out a three-year siege of Sarajevo that claimed more than 10,000 lives.

They were also responsible for the massacre at Srebrenica, where some 9,000 Bosniak men and boys were slaughtered and dumped in mass graves.

The killings were perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of Mladic.

The Scorpions, a paramilitary unit from Serbia who had been part of the Serbian Interior Ministry until 1991, also participated in the massacre.

In April 1993, the United Nations had declared the besiegedenclaveofsrebrenica – in the Drina Valley of northeast Bosnia – a “safe area”.

However, in July 1995, the town was captured by the VRS, paving the way for the massacre.

On 11 July, Mladic strolled through Srebrenica and, in a statement recorded on film by a Serb journalist, said: “We give this town to the Serb nation... The time has come to take revenge on the Muslims.”

On the night of 11 July, a column of more than 10,000 Bosniak men set off from Srebrenica through dense forest in an attempt to reach safety.

Beginning the following morning, Bosnian Serb officers used UN equipment and made false promises of security to encourage the men to surrender.

Thousands gave themselves up or were captured and many were executed.

Other Bosniaks were forced out of Potocari that day through the use of terror, including individual murders and rapes committed by Bosnian Serb forces.

The women, children and elderly were put on buses and driven to Bosniak-held territory. The men and boys were taken to various holding sites on 12 and 13 July.

Some killings occurred on the evening of 12 July but mass transfers of mostly blindfolded Bosniak males to execution sites began in earnest on the evening of 13 July. The destinations were primarily north of Srebrenica, in a 35-mile long band alongside the Drina River, which marks much of Bosnia’s border with Serbia.

The executions continued at least until 16 July, when hundreds of people were reportedly shot at a state farm in the village of Branjevo.

Although Bosnian Serb forces were primarily responsible for the killings, a police unit from Serbia was recorded on video participating in the execution of six Bosniaks.

It was discovered later that many of the victims of the massacre had had their arms and feet bound. Many of the bodies also showed signs of mutilation. The “murderer of Srebrenica” has been brought to justice, former high representative to Bosnia Lord Ashdown said, after Ratko Mladic was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Bosnian Serb warlord was found guilty at a UN court in The Hague of 10 out of 11 counts in relation to the bloody conflict in the mid1990s.

Mladic, 75, led forces responsible for atrocities including the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

Lord Ashdown, who was the international community’s high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006, welcomed the conviction.

The former Liberal Democrat leader said: “The murderer of Srebrenica has been brought to justice.

“Those who value the rule of law in war will welcome this.

“Those who bled in the Bosnian wars have retribution.

“Those in Bosnia who understand there is no peace without justice can now look more confidently to the future.”

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the decision in the Netherlands showed that, “however hard they might try, those who perpetrate atrocities cannot outrun justice”.

He added: “Ratko Mladic’s conviction for genocide in Srebrenica will not bring back the thousands who lost their lives but it does demonstrate that the architects of their suffering will be held to account.

“The atrocities perpetrated in the Balkans in the 1990s marked one of Europe’s darkest periods.

“We must join together to ensure it never happens again.”

The European Union said it counts on the Balkan nations to honour the victims of war crimes committed in the Bosnian war by promoting reconciliation among neighbours.

The EU said it could not comment specifically on the judgment against Mladic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, but that it fully respects the court’s decisions.

It said the judgment “touches upon some of the darkest, most tragic events” in the recent history of Europe.