Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic loses appeal
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Ratko Mladic, the military chief known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for orchestrating genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Balkan nation’s 1992-95 war, lost his final legal battle Tuesday when U.N. judges rejected his appeals and affirmed his life sentence.
The ruling involving his 2017 convictions and sentence closed a grim chapter in European history that included the continent’s first genocide since World War II — the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
The now-frail Mladic, often belligerent at his court appearances in
The Hague, showed no reaction other than a scowl as Presiding Judge Prisca Matimba Nyambe of Zambia said the panel had dismissed, by a vote of 4-1, his appeals of convictions for crimes including genocide, murder, extermination and terror for atrocities throughout the war that killed more than 100,000 and left millions homeless.
The 79-year-old former general is the last major figure to face justice from the conflict that ended more than a quarter century ago.
His former political chief, ex-Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, already is serving a life sentence after being convicted for the same crimes. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was accused of fomenting the ethnic conflicts that tore apart the Balkans in the 1990s, died in a UN cell in 2006 before judges at his trial could reach verdicts.
Serge Brammertz, the prosecutor who finally brought both Karadzic and Mladic to justice, said Mladic “ranks among the most notorious war criminals in modern history” who abused his position of power to commit crimes including genocide.
“Mladic should be condemned by all responsible officials in the former Yugoslavia and around the world,” Brammertz said. “His name should be consigned to the list of history’s most depraved and barbarous figures.”
US President Joe Biden said the “historic judgment shows that those who commit horrific crimes will be held accountable. It also reinforces our shared resolve to prevent future atrocities from occurring anywhere in the world.”
The court also rejected an appeal by prosecutors of Mladic’s acquittal on one other count of genocide linked to ethnic purges early in the war.
As commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, the once-swaggering Mladic led troops responsible for atrocities ranging from “ethnic cleansing” campaigns to the siege of Sarajevo and the war’s bloody climax in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
In Sarajevo, applause broke out among those watching the proceedings. Mayor Benjamina Karic called it “a day of justice” for Sarajevo, Bosnia and innocent victims of the war.
Mladic’s toxic legacy continues to divide Bosnia and his dark shadow has spread far beyond the Balkans.