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Once triumphant Bosnian Serb commander Mladic reduced to frail genocide defendant

By Daria Sito-Sucic

 

FILE PHOTO: Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic after his arrest in Belgrade, Serbia, May 26, 2011. REUTERS/Politika/Handout/File Photo

 

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - In the 1990s he was the burly, brash general leading nationalist Bosnian Serbs towards a seemingly sweeping victory in Bosnia's war. Two decades later, he was reduced to an ailing old man awaiting judgment on genocide charges in a U.N. court.

 

A United Nations tribunal (ICTY) in The Hague will issue its verdict for Ratko Mladic, 74, on Wednesday in one of the highest profile war crimes cases since the post-World War Two Nuremberg trials of Germany's Nazi leadership.

 

Radovan Karadzic, political leader of Bosnia's Serbs in the 1992-95 war, and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who armed and funded Bosnian Serb forces, were tried on the same charges. The ICTY convicted Karadzic in 2016 and jailed him for 40 years. Milosevic died in his cell in 2006 before his trial ended.

 

Defiant until the close of his five-year trial, Mladic, 74, desperately tried to postpone the verdict. His lawyers persistently accused the ICTY of denying him proper medical care. They asked for him to be treated in Serbia or Russia, but were rebuffed.

 

Prosecutors requested a life sentence for the man who critics called the "Butcher of Bosnia". His lawyers called for his acquittal and release, arguing he never approved mass killings of Muslim or Croat civilians in Bosnia's vicious, often neighbourhood war and was a victim of Western anti-Serb bias.

 

A placard depicting former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic is seen in Nevesinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina November 8, 2017. Picture taken November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

 

Mladic said he wanted to be remembered as a defender of Serbs in a struggle for survival against Muslims dating back centuries, and made urgent by a Muslim-Croat vote for Bosnia's independence from Serbian-led Yugoslavia in 1992.

 

"THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS WHO I AM"

 

"I am General Ratko Mladic. The whole world knows who I am," he told a pre-trial hearing in 2011. "I am here defending my country and people, not Ratko Mladic."

 

Mladic was charged with genocide for the slaughter of 8,000 unarmed Bosnian Muslim men and boys rounded up in the town of Srebrenica, and his forces' 43-month-long siege of Sarajevo in which thousands of civilians were killed by artillery, mortar, tank and sniper fire from the rugged hills ringing the capital.

 

From the time of his ICTY indictment in mid-1995, before the war ended, it took 17 years to bring him to trial in The Hague - a testament to the loyalty he inspired among Serbs who helped conceal him and to the resilience of their nationalist cause.

 

But as Serbia evolved after Bosnia's war from authoritarian rule to democracy seeking integration with the European Union,

Mladic lost his sanctuary. When Serbian police acting on an ICTY arrest warrant finally traced Mladic to a cousin's farmhouse in May 2011, they found a penniless, shambling and ill old man.

 

The son of a World War Two Yugoslav partisan killed in 1945, Mladic was a general in the old communist Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) when the multinational Balkan republic began to disintegrate in 1991 with the secession of Slovenia and Croatia.

 

When Bosnia's Serbs rose up in response to a referendum for independence by Muslims and Croats, Mladic took over Belgrade's forces in Bosnia which swiftly overran 70 percent of the country with a combination of daring, ruthlessness and brutality.

 

Serb paramilitaries entered the conflict with a campaign of murder, rape, mutilation and expulsion mainly against Bosnian Muslims. Dozens of towns were besieged with heavy weapons and villages were burned down as 22,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops stood by more or less helplessly, with orders not to take sides.

 

Mladic had a cameraman film the blitz of the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica, showing him bronzed and fit at 53, extolling his "lads" and haranguing hapless Dutch U.N. peacekeepers who took his soldier's word that the inhabitants would be safe.

 

Instead, 8,000 of them were systematically executed in a massacre that took several days in July 1995.

 

TV footage showed Mladic asserting that he had "liberated" Srebrenica and gifted it to Serbs as revenge against "Turks" who ruled the region when it was part of the Ottoman Empire.

 

SREBRENICA SLAUGHTER

 

Muslim men and boys were separated from women, stripped of identification then shot. The dead were bulldozed into mass graves. The remains were later dug up and hauled away in trucks to be better hidden from the world in more remote mass graves.

Over 6,900 victims have since been identified by DNA tests.

 

The massacre was the grim culmination of a 3-1/2-year conflict in which the beefy general had pounded Sarajevo daily with the entire Bosnian Serb arsenal, killing over 11,000 people, until local sports fields were overflowing with graves.

 

His goal, ICTY prosecutors said, was ethnic cleansing - the forcible extermination or expulsion of Muslims, Croats and other non-Serbs to clear Bosnian lands for a "Greater Serbia".

 

Prosecutors said it was a conspiracy in which Mladic and Karadzic were aided, armed and abetted by Milosevic.

 

Only a combination of Western pressure and covert American arms and training for Croats and Muslims turned the tide in 1995 against Mladic's army, ultimately depriving it of equipment and fuel supplies from Serbia. NATO air strikes did the rest.

 

He spent only half his time at large as a hunted fugitive. Even after Milosevic fell to a pro-democracy uprising in 2000, Mladic remained well protected in various Belgrade apartments until 2005.

 

He received treatment at a top military hospital. Sporadic sightings put him at a Belgrade horse race or soccer match.

 

When finally arrested in the shabby rural farmhouse, he put up no resistance. His right arm was lame, the apparent result of an untreated stroke.

 

His trial had to be delayed over and over because of his shaky health. Yet in court, Mladic grinned as a judge read out the charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 

Srebrenica massacre survivors attending one hearing were shocked when he made a throat-slitting gesture towards a Muslim woman who had lost her husband, son and several brothers.

 

In 2014, he refused to give evidence in support of old ally Karadzic, calling the tribunal a "satanic court".

 

Whatever the verdict on Wednesday, Mladic's trial is unlikely to further post-war reconciliation in Bosnia.

 

The U.S.-brokered Dayton Accords of 1995 halted the bloodshed by dividing Bosnia into a semi-autonomous Serb Republic entity and a Bosniak-Croat Federation. This did not heal ethnic splits or prevent a resurgence of Serb separatism.

 

Most Bosnian Serbs remain convinced that Mladic is innocent. If he is found guilty, it will only prove their conviction that the Hague tribunal is utterly biased against Serbs.

 

"I am a very old man ... and I am not important," Mladic told the tribunal. "It matters what kind of legacy I will leave behind, among my people."

 

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-22

 

[InMyShadow]

He is still a hero amongst Serbs. They really didn't want to give him up

[the guest]

Disgusting excuse for a human-being should be sent to prison for the rest of his life. He's lucky he's being tried in a civilised country. If I had my way, he would have a long and painful journey to his grave. 

[boomerangutang]

Life in prison is too nice a penalty for him.  Quick death would be fair.  Slow painful death would be better.

[Enoon]

 

2 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

Life in prison is too nice a penalty for him.  Quick death would be fair.  Slow painful death would be better.

 

That would be a very "Balkan" solution :

List of massacres in Yugoslavia - Wikipedia

 

At the time I knew a Serb woman in London.  She did not have a very high opinion of any of the ex-Yugoslavians that she had left behind:

 

"They are all animals, let them cut each others throats"

 

Bismark put it differently:

 

"The Balkans are not worth the life of one Pomeranian Grenadier".

 

Just as Mongol rule gave an enduring, special "flavour" to Russia, so Ottoman rule did to the Balkans.

 

 

Edited November 22, 2017 by Enoon

[Baerboxer]

2 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

 

That would be a very "Balkan" solution :

List of massacres in Yugoslavia - Wikipedia

 

At the time I knew a Serb woman in London.  She did not have a very high opinion of any of the ex-Yugoslavians that she had left behind:

 

"They are all animals, let them cut each others throats"

 

Bismark put it differently:

 

"The Balkans are not worth the life of one Pomeranian Grenadier".

 

Just as Mongol rule gave an enduring, special "flavour" to Russia, so Ottoman rule did to the Balkans.

 

 

 

I worked with a guy who'd served with British Special Forces in WW11 and posted to the Yugoslav partisan's. In the 70's he predicted there would be a real violent break up once Tito went. He was right.

 

I knew two people who went there as peacekeepers. Both saw some very unpleasant things. The later of the two said that, in his opinion, the Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Croats could never co-exist peacefully. Moreover, he didn't think any of them really wanted to. Too much hatred for too long. They had each done several tours of Northern Ireland but said the divide there was no where near as deep or passionate.

[phantomfiddler]

I am confused. When muslims kill loads of Christians or Chinese in Indonesia, no-one even gets charged with a crime  Oops sorry, I forgot about the Bali bombing, but I think this was the only case where justice prevailed.

Edited November 22, 2017 by phantomfiddler

[InMyShadow]

I am confused. When muslims kill loads of Christians or Chinese in Indonesia, no-one even gets charged with a crime [emoji20] Oops sorry, I forgot about the Bali bombing, but I think this was the only case where justice prevailed.

they are not white Europeans. nobody gives a rats about some dark skinned muzzos... massive prosecution costs need to be justified

[dunroaming]

8 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

Life in prison is too nice a penalty for him.  Quick death would be fair.  Slow painful death would be better.

Well life in prison is the sentence handed down in the Hague.

[boomerangutang]

Over the past millenia, men have devised various ways to kill their fellow men slowly.  Here's a very partial list:

>>>  Crucifiction

>>>  Impalement (sticking a greased stick up the anus, exiting at the shoulder. Needs to have a hilt below, in order to work properly when a person is strung up. ask Vlad, he'll know)

>>>  Probably the most common:  putting someone in detention and letting them starve to death.  The French did it to the dauphen, who was about 12 at the time.

>>>  In Tibet, a criminal would have a heavy wooden wheel put on his shoulders.  The wheel started in two pieces, and had an opening in the middle for the condemned person's neck. The criminal could not touch his head with his hands, as only his head protruded (through the neck hole) above the solid wheel.

>>>  Native Americans in the deserts of N.America:  bury a person up to their neck in the sand. Spread opuntia fruit jelly on his eyes.  Let the ants do their biz.  Alternatively, just toss the unlucky guy upon a (jumping) cholla cactus - which has ratchet-like light-yellow spines which work in, but don't come out.

[simple1]

2 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

I am confused. When muslims kill loads of Christians or Chinese in Indonesia, no-one even gets charged with a crime  Oops sorry, I forgot about the Bali bombing, but I think this was the only case where justice prevailed.

One may well ask why members who repeatedly post troll comments are not banned from this forum. However...

 

Islamists are constantly being killed by extrajudicial means by both Western and Islamic majority country security forces, rarely the opportunity to be arrested to face Court Justice; likely not a preferred option when you consider Gitmo. Regards the mass murder of communists in Indonesia, check out the assistance provided by the US.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_1965–1966

 

 

 

 

[Grouse]

2 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

Over the past millenia, men have devised various ways to kill their fellow men slowly.  Here's a very partial list:

>>>  Crucifiction

>>>  Impalement (sticking a greased stick up the anus, exiting at the shoulder. Needs to have a hilt below, in order to work properly when a person is strung up. ask Vlad, he'll know)

>>>  Probably the most common:  putting someone in detention and letting them starve to death.  The French did it to the dauphen, who was about 12 at the time.

>>>  In Tibet, a criminal would have a heavy wooden wheel put on his shoulders.  The wheel started in two pieces, and had an opening in the middle for the condemned person's neck. The criminal could not touch his head with his hands, as only his head protruded (through the neck hole) above the solid wheel.

>>>  Native Americans in the deserts of N.America:  bury a person up to their neck in the sand. Spread opuntia fruit jelly on his eyes.  Let the ants do their biz.  Alternatively, just toss the unlucky guy upon a (jumping) cholla cactus - which has ratchet-like light-yellow spines which work in, but don't come out.

Get this crap off here!

 

Reported!!!!!

[Grouse]

What an appalling thread

 

Much as I am anti Muslim, nobody should be subjected to this dreadful individual

 

Lock him up and throw away the key. 

[Bluespunk]

Lock this scum up for life. 

 

Throw away the key. 

 

Never let him see the light of day again. 

 

Let him rot and then throw his carcas into the nearest shit pit. 

 

Genocidal, murdering bastard. 

Edited November 22, 2017 by Bluespunk

[InMyShadow]

What an appalling thread

 

Much as I am anti Muslim, nobody should be subjected to this dreadful individual

 

Lock him up and throw away the key. 

this was the beggining of the Era of take no prisoners.

 

You can see that amplified a million times over in Syria today

 

actually the Americans were the biggest mass killers in history along with the nazis with atomic bombs wiping out whole cities of innocent people

 

Don't seem to recall any of the generals being locked up for life over that

 

the level of hypocrisy on TV is mind blowing

 

[gk10002000]

And after all the bloodshed and disruption, some lines on a map were re-drawn.  A few thousand people moved here, a few thousand people moved there.  Disgusting

[InMyShadow]

And after all the bloodshed and disruption, some lines on a map were re-drawn.  A few thousand people moved here, a few thousand people moved there.  Disgusting

that's way to simplified. Google the history of Balkan conflicts.

sometimes you need to let the volcano explode to move forward.

All wars are brutal. but none were resolved with dialog alone.. obviously

[greatwhitenorth]

7 hours ago, InMyShadow said:

this was the beggining of the Era of take no prisoners.

 

You can see that amplified a million times over in Syria today

 

actually the Americans were the biggest mass killers in history along with the nazis with atomic bombs wiping out whole cities of innocent people

 

Don't seem to recall any of the generals being locked up for life over that

 

the level of hypocrisy on TV is mind blowing

 

Absolutely Incorrect. Nazis didn t have atomic bombs and there were the Nuremburg Trials.  The even made a movie of it incase you don t like to read.

[Scott]

Inflammatory post removed.