Ex-military chief sentenced to life
Claim of bias after Mladic convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity
THE UN’s Yugoslav war crimes tribunal yesterday convicted Bosnian Serb military chief, General Ratko Mladic, of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to life in prison for atrocities during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.
Mladic, 75, was found guilty of commanding forces responsible for crimes including the worst atrocities of the war – the deadly threeyear siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, and the 1995 massacre of some 8 000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica, which was Europe’s worst mass killing since World War II.
A three-judge panel at the court formally known as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia convicted Mladic of 10 of 11 counts in a dramatic climax to a groundbreaking effort to seek justice for the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Presiding Judge Alphons Orie read out the judgment after ordering Mladic out of the courtroom for the final verdict over an angry outburst.
Mothers of Srebrenica’s victims clapped when the convictions were read out.
Mladic’s son Darko said: “I’m not surprised.
“The court was totally biased from the start.”
Bosnians and Serbs watched from near and far as the long-awaited climax approached.
Yesterday’s judgment marks the end of the final trial at the tribunal, which was set up in 1993, while fierce fighting was still raging in Bosnia.
Emotions ran high outside the courtroom, with a small skirmish reflecting lingering tension between Serbs and Bosnians over the trial and the war.
Despite ailing health, Mladic looked relaxed, greeting lawyers and giving a thumbs up to photographers in court.
He nodded regularly as Judge Orie read out descriptions of atrocities by Bosnian Serb forces, one by one.
Then Mladic’s lawyer asked for a delay because the general was suffering high blood pressure.
The judge refused, and Mladic burst out with criticism and was ordered to leave the room.
Paddy Ashdown, a former UN High Representative for Bosnia, said the genocide conviction of Mladic was a victory for justice.
Ashdown, a former leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrat party, said: “Those who value the rule of law in war will welcome the verdict against the murderer of Srebrenica.”
He said “those who bled in the Bosnian wars have retribution”, and that those in Bosnia who “understand there is no peace without justice can now look more confidently to the future”.
In Lazarevo, a small Serbian village where Mladic was arrested in 2011, residents have dismissed the guilty verdict against him as biased.
Villagers say they do not recognise the UN’s Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, which they say has sought to solely blame Serbs for the crimes of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.