Ratko Mladić, Commander of Bosnian Serbs, Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Genocide

The International Court of Justice has sentenced Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity and genocide during the Bosnian War (1992-1995). This court, operating under the United Nations and based in The Hague, confirmed 10 out of 11 charges against Mladić on November 22, coinciding with Azar 1. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, described the ruling as a 'historic victory for justice' and referred to Mladić as the 'embodiment of evil.' Mladić was convicted for commanding Serb forces that committed numerous war crimes, including the three-year deadly siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of approximately 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. The judge read the final ruling after expelling Mladić from the courtroom for disrupting the proceedings. Before being escorted out by law enforcement, Mladić shouted, 'They are lying. You are lying too... I am not feeling well.' He was acquitted of one charge related to ethnic cleansing in villages and towns in Bosnia. His lawyer stated they would appeal the ruling, adding, 'We will definitely contest this ruling, and our appeal will be successful.' The prosecutor clarified that the ruling does not implicate all Serbs, stating, 'Mladić's crimes and sins are solely his own.' Nationalist Serbs claim that this international court acts against Serbs since most of those convicted have been Serbs. Regardless of any appeals, the sentence against Ratko Mladić is the last ruling this court will issue. This court was established in 1993 in The Hague to investigate crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. The 75-year-old Mladić, whose enemies called him the 'Butcher of Bosnia,' was accused of organizing and ordering the execution of over 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in July 1995 in Srebrenica, an event considered the largest genocide in Europe since the Holocaust. Denis Zvizdić, the Prime Minister of Bosnia, welcomed the ruling in a statement, saying, 'This shows that war criminals, no matter how much they hide, will not escape justice.' The NATO Secretary-General also stated, 'This ruling shows that the rule of law is being enforced.' Meanwhile, Aleksandar Vučić, the President of Serbia, who was apparently not surprised by the ruling, said, 'We all knew what the outcome would be.' He, who previously supported extremist nationalists backing Mladić, now claims to be a reformist pro-European, urged the people of Serbia to look to the future. Given the serious charges against Ratko Mladić, his trial has been the most significant related to war crimes and crimes against humanity since the trials of Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. The court investigating war crimes in the Balkans issued an arrest warrant for Ratko Mladić in 1995, but he lived secretly in Serbia for a long time until he was finally arrested by the Serbian government in 2011 and handed over to the court. This same court sentenced Radovan Karadžić, the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs and Mladić's superior, to 40 years in prison in 2016 for similar crimes, including genocide. He has appealed the ruling. Slobodan Milošević, the then-President of Serbia and another key defendant in the Bosnian war crimes case, died in his prison cell in The Hague in 2006, ending his trial without a verdict.