Serbia Slams UN Court After Mladic Dies
Serbia Slams UN Court After Mladic Dies
The News
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the UN war crimes court in The Hague of "uncivilized behavior" for refusing to release Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander who died Thursday at 84 while serving a life sentence for genocide.
Mladic died a week after the court rejected his latest request for release on humanitarian grounds.
"That was uncivilized behavior, unprecedented and without excuse," Vucic said Friday. "We can now see that they wanted Mladic to die behind bars."
Mladic commanded Bosnian Serb forces during a war that left more than 100,000 people dead and over a million homeless. He was convicted of genocide over the July 1995 killings at Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed — Europe's first acknowledged genocide since World War II.
Timeline
Forces under Mladic's command overran the UN-designated "safe haven" at Srebrenica, forced men and boys to strip, killed them and bulldozed their bodies into mass graves. Serb forces under his control also laid siege to Sarajevo — a siege that ran more than 40 months and killed around 11,000 people, including more than 1,600 children — ran camps for detained non-Serb civilians and enemy soldiers, and systematically killed prisoners.
Mladic was taken into custody after years as a fugitive.
The UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced him to life in prison.
His conviction and life sentence were upheld on appeal, making them final.
Judge Graciela Gatti Santana of Uruguay, president of the UN court that handles the legacy of the closed war crimes tribunals, denied Mladic's release request. She cited the "comprehensive and compassionate medical care" he was receiving in custody "as well as the exceptional visitation regime allowing meaningful family contact."
Mladic died in detention in The Hague at 84. The court opened an inquiry into his death the same day.
The judge conducting the inquiry visited the detention center where he was held. Vucic attacked the court in remarks to reporters in Belgrade.
Reactions
Mladic's family and the Serbian government had asked repeatedly that he be freed, citing his age and failing health.
Bosnian Serbs held vigils and lit candles for him Thursday evening. They still regard him as a hero. "He could not have been a better man. Everything else is just a bunch of lies. He would not touch anyone, child, no one. It's all lies," said Stojanka Visnjevac, a resident of Kalinovik, Mladic's hometown.
Families of his victims said his death in prison meant at least some justice. Fazila Efendic, who lost several relatives at Srebrenica, said it matters that he never walked free. "We, the victims, are satisfied, when we know that he was convicted to life in prison," she said. "For us, it is important that he is convicted and that he served his sentence until he died."
What's Next
The court — formally the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals — said it will not release any information on the cause of death until its inquiry is finished. It told the Associated Press that Dutch authorities have formally notified it they are not opening a criminal investigation and will not perform an autopsy.
Vucic said Belgrade has no information on when the body will be released, and that Mladic's family will decide where he is buried. "If the family expresses a wish that he be buried in the territory of Serbia, we will help so it can be done in a dignified way," he said. He did not confirm earlier reports that Mladic would get a state funeral — reports that sparked outrage across the region.
More
More than three decades after the wars in the former Yugoslavia, the region remains split over Mladic. His 2017 conviction was treated internationally as proof that mass atrocities can still be punished decades later. His death in custody leaves the underlying fight — over genocide denial and divided institutions in Bosnia — untouched.
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