Before Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mladić was responsible for numerous crimes in Croatia as well.
Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army during the war in the 1990s, has been sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of genocide and war crimes by the UN Tribunal for War Crimes Committed in the former Yugoslavia at The Hague, on November 22, 2017. More than 20 years after the Srebrenica massacre and his first indictment, he was found guilty of numerous offences. Before the events in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mladić also took part in the aggression against Croatia, where he committed numerous crimes as well.
The announcement of the verdict was initially delayed for more than half an hour after Mladić asked the judge for a bathroom break. Later, his defence team asked the court to suspend the proceedings because of his health, but judges denied the request. Mladić started shouting, which prompted judges to have him removed from the courtroom to allow the verdict to be read.
Mladić was found guilty for genocide, persecution as a crime against humanity, extermination as a crime against humanity, murder, deportations,: inhumane acts of forcible transfer, terrorising, unlawful attacks on civilians and hostage-taking.
The court found that Mladić had significantly contributed to the execution of the criminal enterprise in Srebrenica. He gave wrong information about the crimes committed and did not take steps to prevent and investigate the crimes. Without him, the crimes could not be executed in this way. He committed crimes of persecution, extermination, murder and inhumane acts of forcible transfer. The court found that, from 1994 to July 1995, Mladić made numerous statements in which he spoke about the need for retaliation against the Muslims and that “they would have disappeared a long time ago if the international community had not intervened.”
The court found that Mladić intended to eliminate Muslims from Srebrenica by killing men and boys and forcibly removing women, children and some of the elderly, through crimes of persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and forcible transfer. The court found that the only reasonable conclusion was that Mladić intended to destroy Muslims in Srebrenica as a significant part of that group and intended to fulfil the objective of the joint criminal enterprise through the commission of the crime of genocide.
Mladić also personally commanded the shelling of Sarajevo on 28 May 1992, took part in the selection of the targets and ordered the fire to be redirected from parts of the town where Serbs lived. In the summer of 1995, he proposed bombing Sarajevo without taking into account the security of civilians. In September, he commanded his units to cause breakdown in the provision of electricity
In Sarajevo, which forced residents to go outdoors and be exposed to sniper fire.
The court also found that Mladić prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians starting from 10 April 1994, instructing all units to block humanitarian organisations in the territory controlled by Bosnian Serbs. He was deliberately giving statements to the media which lead to the wrong conclusions regarding the crimes committed. The court found that Mladić significantly contributed to the achievement of the goal of permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from the territory.
Although he is “best known” for crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mladić began his bloody campaign in Croatia, as commander of the Knin Corps of the Yugoslav National Army. His units attacked Šibenik, Zadar, Vrlik, Kijevo and Škabrnja, where on 18 November 1991 as many as 43 civilians and 15 Croat soldiers were killed. The Hague Court did not consider charges against Mladić regarding crimes committed in Croatia.
