UN Calls Mladic's Conviction Over Slaughtering Bosnian Muslims As Victory For Justice

Welcoming todayconviction of ex-Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic on multiple counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by an international tribunal for former Yugoslavia

UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Nov, 2017 ) :Welcoming todayconviction of ex-Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic on multiple counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by an international tribunal for former Yugoslavia, the United Nations top human right official said that the verdict is a warning to perpetrators of such crimes that they will be brought to justice.

Mladic, 75, was found guilty of commanding forces responsible for crimes including the worst atrocities of the war the deadly three-year siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica, which was Europeworst mass killing since World War II.

A three-judge panel at the court formally known as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia convicted Mladic of 10 of 11 counts in a dramatic climax to a groundbreaking effort to seek justice for atrocities during Bosnia1992-1995 war.

Mladic is the epitome of evil, and the prosecution of Mladic is the epitome of what international justice is all about, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement Wednesday.

Today verdict is a warning to the perpetrators of such crimes that they will not escape justice, no matter how powerful they may be nor how long it may take. They will be held accountable, he added.

In the statement, High Commissioner Zeid also noted that Mladicconviction, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), is a testament to the courage and determination of those victims and witnesses who never gave up hope that they would see him brought to justice.

Also in the statement, Zeid said that the ICTY verdict reinforced the importance of the International Criminal Court.He also expressed hope that while the conviction will not return loved ones to their families or erase the past, the verdict can help counter the voices of those who either deny these horrific crimes or glorify those who committed them.

All those who question the importance of the ICC should reflect on this case. All those who are committing serious international crimes in so many situations today across the world should fear this result, he said.

Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic – two of the main architects of some of the worst atrocities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the genocide of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica – have now been convicted by the Tribunal and are facing lengthy jail sentences.

Also today, in a separate statement, Serge Brammertz, the Prosecutor at the ICTY, said that in delivering its judgement, the Tribunal accepted the evidence presented that Mladic was a key participant in four joint criminal enterprises.

Mladic and other senior leaders intended to achieve their political and military aims by committing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, said the Prosecutor. The convictions against the former Bosnian Serb army commander included for commanding violent ethnic cleansing campaigns across Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995; for commanding a campaign of crimes during the Siege of Sarajevo; for the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995; and for using forces under his command to take UN peacekeepers as hostages.

In his statement, Brammertz underscored that while some people would claim that this judgment is a verdict against the Serbian people. [We] reject that claim in the strongest terms. Mladicguilt is his, and his alone he will be remembered by history for the many communities and lives he destroyed he said.

“The true heroes are the victims and survivors who never gave up on their quest for justice [and] displayed real courage by coming to the Tribunal to tell the truth and confront the men who wronged them,highlighted the prosecutor.