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Ratko Mladic jailed for life over Bosnia war genocide

22 November 2017

From the section Europe Share

Media captionRatko Mladic began shouting at the judges before his sentence was read out

Former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic has been jailed for life for genocide and other atrocities
in the 1990s Bosnian war.

Known as the "Butcher of Bosnia", Mladic led forces during the massacre of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks)
in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.

The UN tribunal in The Hague convicted him on 10 of the 11 charges.

Mladic, 74, was not in court when the sentence was read out. He had been removed for shouting at the
judges.
They had rejected a request by his team to halt proceedings because of Mladic's high blood pressure. At
the start of the session, he appeared relaxed, smiling and gesturing to the cameras.

Mladic has denied all the charges and his lawyer said he would appeal.

Profile: The "Butcher of Bosnia"

What is the case against Mladic?

What were the crimes?

Mladic was the military commander of Bosnian Serb forces against Bosnian Croat and Bosniak armies.
He had been on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since 2012.

It found that Mladic "significantly contributed" to the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, where more than
7,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered, the worst atrocity in Europe since World War Two.

He was cleared of a second count of genocide in other municipalities. The other charges included war
crimes and crimes against humanity.

Media caption"The soil here is soaked with blood" - survivor Mevludin Oric

Presiding judge Alphons Orie read out many crimes committed by troops under Mladic's command,
including:

Mass rapes of Bosniak women and girls

Keeping Bosniak prisoners in appalling conditions - starving, thirsty and sick - and beating them

Terrorising civilians in Sarajevo by shelling and sniping at them

Deporting Bosniaks forcibly en masse

Destroying Bosniaks' homes and mosques

At the end of the war in 1995 Mladic went into hiding and lived in obscurity in Serbia, protected by
family and elements of the security forces.

He was finally tracked down and arrested at a cousin's house in rural northern Serbia in 2011 after 16
years on the run.

What has the reaction been?

Victims and their relatives watched the verdict in a memorial centre near Srebrenica, and erupted in
cheers as it was read out.
The group Mothers of Srebrenica said it was partially satisfied, and some relatives said Mladic deserved
a harsher sentence.

What now for Bosnia victims as Hague tribunal closes?

Image caption

Victims and their relatives watched the verdict in a memorial centre near Srebrenica

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein called Mladic the "epitome of evil" and said his prosecution
was "the epitome of what international justice is all about".

Rights group Amnesty International said the sentence was a "landmark moment for justice".

What happened at Srebrenica?

In early July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces besieged an area near the town of Srebrenica. It had been
designated a United Nations "safe zone" and was being guarded by 600 lightly-armed Dutch UN soldiers.

The Serbs attacked from the south, prompting thousands of Bosniak civilians and fighters to flee north
to Srebrenica. As the Serb advance continued, refugees fled north to the main Dutch base in Potocari.

Gen Mladic summoned the Dutch commander, Col Thom Karremans, and demanded that the Bosniaks
disarm to save their lives.

On 12 July, some 15,000 Bosniak men of military age broke out of the enclave. They were shelled as they
fled through the mountains. Some were also killed after surrendering.

Buses then deported an estimated 23,000 women and children to Bosniak territory, while the Serbs
separated out all males from age 12 to 77 for "interrogation for suspected war crimes".

On 13 July the first killings of unarmed Bosniaks took place in a warehouse in the nearby village of
Kravica.

Over four days, up to 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serbs at sites around
Srebrenica.

What was the siege of Sarajevo?

Image caption

April 1992: Bosniaks take cover from shelling in Sarajevo

Civilians in the Bosnian capital endured a brutal siege in 1992-1995 at the hands of Bosnian Serb forces,
who fired down into the city from the surrounding hills. The death toll was more than 10,000.

It was part of what prosecutors call a Serb "criminal enterprise" to spread terror among Bosniaks and
Croats, and to drive them from areas claimed as Serb territory.
Related Topics

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