Ratko Mladic, the army leader 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 denied his appeals and affirmed his life sentence.
The ruling between his 2017 Legislation and sentence closed a grim chapter in European history which included the continent’s earliest genocide since World War II — the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim boys and men.
The now-frail Mladic, frequently belligerent at his court appearances in The Hague, showed no response aside from a scowl as Presiding Judge Prisca Matimba Nyambe of Zambia said the panel had disregarded, with a vote of 4-1, his appeals of convictions for crimes including genocide, murder, extermination and terror for atrocities throughout the war that killed over 100,000 and left millions homeless.
The 79-year-old former overall is the final major figure to face justice in the battle that ended more than a quarter century ago.
His former political leader, ex-Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, already is serving a life sentence after being detained for the same offenses. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was accused of fomenting the cultural conflicts that tore apart the Balkans in the 1990s, died in a U.N. cell in 2006 prior to judges at his trial might reach verdicts.
“Mladic must be condemned by all responsible officials in the former Yugoslavia and around the globe,” Brammertz said. “His name should be consigned into the list of history’s most depraved and barbarous figures.”
U.S. President Joe Biden said the”historical judgment indicates that individuals who commit horrific crimes will be held accountable. In addition, it reinforces our shared resolve to stop future atrocities from occurring anywhere on earth.”
“My thoughts today are with the surviving families of many victims of Mladic’s atrocities. We can not eliminate the tragedy of the deaths, but that I hope today’s ruling provides some solace to those who are grieving,” a statement from Biden explained.
The court also rejected an appeal by prosecutors of Mladic’s acquittal on a other count of genocide linked to cultural 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 from the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
In Sarajevo, applause broke out among those watching the event. Mayor Benjamina Karic called it”a day of justice” for Sarajevo, Bosnia and innocent victims of the war.
Mladic’s poisonous legacy continues to divide Bosnia and his dark shadow has spread far beyond the Balkans.
To Serbs in Bosnia, he is a war hero who fought to safeguard his people. To Bosniaks, mostly Muslims, he will always be a villain accountable for their wartime suffering and losses.
Nedziba Salihovic, who lost her son and husband at the bloodshed, watched the courtroom hearing on a massive screen in Srebrenica.
“This means a lot to me, my heart is running,” she said. “He had been punished. It isn’t important where he’ll wind up (to serve his sentence). Like mothers of Srebrenica, he will devote the rest of his life with no family.”
Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik blasted the final verdict as”selective justice” and also”satanization of Serbs” that will only deepen the existing cultural split in Bosnia so many years following the war.
“The court didn’t establish Mladic’s direct guilt,” Dodik said. “It’s clear the genocide in Srebrenica never occurred .”
Mladic’s son, Darko, that was part of his defense team, said in The Hague:”This traveling circus (the tribunal) has completed its job as though it started. The general had no chance of a fair trial”
Mladic was initially indicted in July 1995.
The ruling was welcomed as”an important affirmation of the principle of law” by Kathryne Bomberger, director-general of the International Commission on Missing people that helped locate and identify victims of atrocities in Bosnia.
“Ramifications of the ruling in the event of Mladic and in previous cases, like that of Radovan Karadzic, go beyond the Western Balkans. This gives hope to survivors of atrocity, such as families of the disappeared and missing persons round the globe, that justice can be delivered,” Bomberger said.
Amnesty International’s Europe Director Nils Muižniek said the ruling”sends a strong message around the planet that impunity cannot, and won’t be tolerated.”
Nedzad Avdic, who lived a mass execution in Srebrenica, stated he was satisfied”even though nothing could erase what we’ve been bring back our dead.”
The judgment”will make denying that the crimes harder. This along with other verdicts are the starting point for anyone who cares about truth,” he added.
The shadow of Mladic and Karadzic has spread far beyond the Balkans. They’ve been revered by overseas far-right supporters for their damn wartime campaigns.
The Australian who shot dead dozens of Muslim worshippers at Christchurch, New Zealand, at 2019 has been thought to be motivated by the wartime Bosnian Serb leaders, as was Anders Breivik, the Norwegian white supremacist who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011.
The U.N. tribunal that initially indicted Mladic has since shut its doors. His appeal and other legal problems left over in the tribunal were dealt with by the U.N.’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, that can be housed in precisely the same building as the now-defunct court for the former Yugoslavia.
Outside the court, a different mum from Srebrenica, Munira Subasic had a concept for young people from Serbia and the Serb part of Bosnia.
She encouraged them to study the court’s conclusions and indictments, and”stop hating and make a better future for our children.”
