Warlord Mladic jailed for life over Srebrenica genocide

Ratko Mladic will be jailed for life for the atrocities in Srebrenica (Bosnia).

The former Bosnian Serb military commander led the forces that massacred Muslims in the country (known as Bosniaks).

The UN International Court for the former Yugoslavia (The Hague) convicted him on 10 of 11 charges, in a judicial process that has lasted for five years.

ICTY Prosecutor Serge Brammertz gives statement after the trial judgement of Ratko Mladic. / Flickr ICTY (CC)

Mladic, also known as “The Butcher of Bosnia”, will be imprisoned for the rest of his life. He is now 75 years old.

Mladic “significantly contributed” to the genocide in Srebrenica, the worst atrocity of the Bosnia war, in the 1990s. He helped kill 7,000 men and boys. He was then overseeing an army of 180,000 men.

In addition, troops under Mladic’s command committed these other crimes: mass rapes of Bosniak women and girls, keeping Bosniak prisoners in appalling conditions - starving, thirsty and sick - and beating them, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo by shelling and sniping at them, deporting Bosniaks en masse, and destroying Bosniaks' homes and mosques.

Mladic had a central role in the siege of Sarajevo, in which about 10,000 people died.

Tens of thousands of victims of conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been waiting more than 20 years for justice. But today former war leader #Mladic has finally been convicted for genocide. Impunity will not be tolerated! https://t.co/v03HSlXRTu pic.twitter.com/Y14YyN3fmb

— AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) 22 de novembre de 2017

A LONG PROCESS

Mladic had been on the run for 16 years when he was found and arrested in 2011.

Victims and their relatives watched the verdict in a memorial centre near Srebrenica, and erupted in cheers as it was read out.

Read more about the long process against Ratko Mladic in this in-depth article by the BBC.