The UN court rejected a request from former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic’s defence to have three judges removed from his appeal against conviction because of their rulings in Srebrenica genocide trials.
In a sign of continuing post-war divisions, Bosniak survivors of the conflict welcomed Ratko Mladic’s life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity, but Bosnian Serbs accused the Hague Tribunal of anti-Serb bias.
The UN court in The Hague convicted former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic of the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
During a four-year trial, the Hague Tribunal has heard powerful and strongly-contested arguments about whether Ratko Mladic is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity or whether he simply defended Bosnia’s Serbs.
Grgo Stojic is the only victim of a wartime massacre in the Bosnian village of Skrljevita who survived to testify against former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic in the Hague Tribunal courtroom.
When Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, who faces judgment this week, met frightened Bosniaks after his forces took Srebrenica in 1995, he told them they wouldn’t be harmed - but then the massacres began.
On the eve of pronouncement of a verdict in Ratko Mladic case, which is due on November 22, a special debate has been produced in collaboration between the Balkans Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, and Radio Free Europe.
Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s defence team, plus his relatives’ visits to the detention unit and financial aid to him personally, have cost the Hague Tribunal, the Bosnian Serbs and Serbia over two million euros.
Author Julian Borger argues that because Serbia was not penalised for shielding Ratko Mladic while he was on the run, it helped foster a culture of denial of war crimes and genocide.