Ratko Mladic

[Betty Boop]

Ratko Mladic has been arrested in Serbia, having been on the run for years. I wonder if he will be tried in Serbia or extradited to the Hague ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/26/ratko-mladic-arrest

[khib70]

Ratko Mladic has been arrested in Serbia, having been on the run for years. I wonder if he will be tried in Serbia or extradited to the Hague ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/26/ratko-mladic-arrest
This is excellent news, Betty!

Hopefully he'll face trial at the Hague for his appalling crimes, like his fellow mass murderers Milosevic and Karazdic. Even now, I wouldn't trust a trial in Serbia, where, horribly, he's still a hero to many people.

[RyeSloan]

Ratko Mladic has been arrested in Serbia, having been on the run for years. I wonder if he will be tried in Serbia or extradited to the Hague ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/26/ratko-mladic-arrest

Extradition is a certainty I think...amazing what can happen when there is a bit of political will to do so isn't it!

[hibsbollah]

Great news. I read a bit about him a while back and srebenica was truly terrifying. Evil personified.

I often wonder about those Dutch peacekeepers who stood by and let it happen. All that is needed for evil to thrive is for good men to stand by and do nothing...something like that.

[Betty Boop]

This is excellent news, Betty!

Hopefully he'll face trial at the Hague for his appalling crimes, like his fellow mass murderers Milosevic and Karazdic. Even now, I wouldn't trust a trial in Serbia, where, horribly, he's still a hero to many people.


Extradition is a certainty I think...amazing what can happen when there is a bit of political will to do so isn't it!


Great news. I read a bit about him a while back and srebenica was truly terrifying. Evil personified.

I often wonder about those Dutch peacekeepers who stood by and let it happen. All that is needed for evil to thrive is for good men to stand by and do nothing...something like that.

Yeah great news guys, and you are right KH he is indeed still a hero in Serbia. I wonder who was shielding him in Serbia, and how his capture came about ? I guess all will be revealed in the coming days. I wonder why they were able to take Mladic alive though, while Bin Laden was assassinated, Mladic surely is guilty of committing genocide and crimes against humanity, and will face trial and rightly so. Anyhow for anyone interested this is a very good documentary about the Srebenica massacre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fliw801iX84

[steakbake]

I'm usually pretty measured about the kinds of folk who are rounded up for the various crimes against humanity that happen, but Bosnia is something I feel strongly about.

I'm glad they've indicted this absolute ******* of a man. I'm not one who is given to knee jerks and calls for summary justice, but had someone picked him off until now, they should have been given a medal.

The massacre at Srebrenica was the most horrendous atrocity Europe has seen since the end of the Second World War. It was a systematic process to eliminate thousands of people on the basis of their faith and their perceived ethnicity. And still even today, there are politicians in Serbia and Republika Srpska - serious and otherwise moderate ones - who deny that it even happened or quibble over the numbers killed like they're trying to barter at a market.

Mladic has been specifically named in many survivors accounts. He was overseeing the whole thing.

Bosnia is an amazing country and there is so much to see and take in that is not part of it's awful recent past. But you cannot escape the recentness of the tragic history. The memorial to the massacre is simply one of the most heart breaking places I have ever seen. Enormous slabs with the names of people who lived in what we all thought was 1990s "civilised" post-Cold War Europe, listed alphabetically from A - Z. The names just seem to go on for ever. You can't even comprehend that for each name, there was a person - not even soldiers, but whole families or men, women and children who until that summer, had gone about their lives in as much the same way as you or I. I found it hard to comprehend it all and still remember the heat and the unbearable stillness of that place.

Men, women and children were herded up in their hundreds. Family members were made to perform degrading acts on each other at gunpoint, women and children were indiscriminately raped and killed: all for the amusement of the Serb militia - and all under the command of Mladic.

People were shot in acts of wholesale, industrial murder then bulldozed into graves the menfolk had been forced to dig. While that is hard enough to understand, all this happened under the gaze of Dutch soldiers, who were supposedly there to protect the people in the enclave. Not everyone agrees with this view, but they stood by and let it happen, rendered impotent by their commanders and political masters who didn't wish to "take sides".

There was also a sizeable Greek volunteer force who assisted the Serbs in the massacre. Something which successive Greek governments have tried to keep under wraps, much like their hostility to Nato using air bases in Greece to bomb Serbian targets at the time.

I hope Mladic tastes justice. Its a shame he's been able to live out the best years of his health at liberty. Perhaps it comes as little comfort to people in Bosnia to know that he's about to be held accountable. I'm glad it may happen in the Hague because perhaps that will finally prick the Dutch consciousness which to be honest, has never really grasped the consequences of their neutrality and passivity.

It's hard not to dwell on some of the extremes of human behaviour which happened that summer in 1995. However, I would recommend those who are interested to read a first hand account of a survivor of Srebrenica to have a look at Emir Suljagic's "Postcards from the Grave".

[Jonnyboy]

Extradition is a certainty I think...amazing what can happen when there is a bit of political will to do so isn't it!

The cynic in me says he's been offered up due to Serbia's desperation to join the EU.

Glad they've got him and hope the trial takes place in the Hague

[steakbake]

The cynic in me says he's been offered up due to Serbia's desperation to join the EU.

Glad they've got him and hope the trial takes place in the Hague

Yes, funny how sometimes offering cash or promises can work more reliably than a national conscience.

[Baw Baggio]

I'm usually pretty measured about the kinds of folk who are rounded up for the various crimes against humanity that happen, but Bosnia is something I feel strongly about.

I'm glad they've indicted this absolute ******* of a man. I'm not one who is given to knee jerks and calls for summary justice, but had someone picked him off until now, they should have been given a medal.

The massacre at Srebrenica was the most horrendous atrocity Europe has seen since the end of the Second World War. It was a systematic process to eliminate thousands of people on the basis of their faith and their perceived ethnicity. And still even today, there are politicians in Serbia and Republika Srpska - serious and otherwise moderate ones - who deny that it even happened or quibble over the numbers killed like they're trying to barter at a market.

Mladic has been specifically named in many survivors accounts. He was overseeing the whole thing.

Bosnia is an amazing country and there is so much to see and take in that is not part of it's awful recent past. But you cannot escape the recentness of the tragic history. The memorial to the massacre is simply one of the most heart breaking places I have ever seen. Enormous slabs with the names of people who lived in what we all thought was 1990s "civilised" post-Cold War Europe, listed alphabetically from A - Z. The names just seem to go on for ever. You can't even comprehend that for each name, there was a person - not even soldiers, but whole families or men, women and children who until that summer, had gone about their lives in as much the same way as you or I. I found it hard to comprehend it all and still remember the heat and the unbearable stillness of that place.

Men, women and children were herded up in their hundreds. Some were made to perform humiliating and perverted acts on each other at gunpoint, women and children were indiscriminately raped and killed: all for the amusement of the Serb militia - and all under the command of Mladic.

People were shot in acts of wholesale, industrial murder then bulldozed into graves the menfolk had been forced to dig. While that is hard enough to understand, all this happened under the gaze of Dutch soldiers, who were supposedly there to protect the people in the enclave. Not everyone agrees with this view, but they stood by and let it happen, rendered impotent by their commanders and political masters who didn't wish to "take sides".

There was also a sizeable Greek volunteer force who assisted the Serbs in the massacre. Something which successive Greek governments have tried to keep under wraps, much like their hostility to Nato using air bases in Greece to bomb Serbian targets at the time.

I hope Mladic tastes justice. Its a shame he's been able to live out the best years of his health at liberty. Perhaps it comes as little comfort to people in Bosnia to know that he's about to be held accountable. I'm glad it may happen in the Hague because perhaps that will finally prick the Dutch consciousness which to be honest, has never really grasped the consequences of their neutrality and passivity.

It's hard not to dwell on some of the extremes of human behaviour which happened that summer in 1995. However, I would recommend those who are interested to read a first hand account of a survivor of Srebrenica to have a look at Emir Suljagic's "Postcards from the Grave".

:agree:

Bosnia is one of the most beautiful and unspoilt countries I've ever visited, I recommend it to everyone, but it's recent history is still very evident. Most Bosnian's I met were looking to move on and forgive, hopefully the arrest of Mladic will help.

[hibsbollah]

Excellent, accurate and moving post steakbake.

[hibsbollah]

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/siYBlCPQ4X2Grs8rjOyC6bA/view.m?id=15&gid=news/blog/2011/jun/03/ratko-mladic-war-crimes-tribunal-live&cat=top-stories


It never ceases to amaze how tyrants like this often use weasly legal loopholes to delay and frustrate the process, when their whole demeanour previously is based on being tough, manly, fearless. Too ill to read the charges against him; what nonsense. I hope the judge doesnt allow the process to be delayed and obstructed as in the milosevic case.

Assuming he IS guilty and the evidence is there, of course.

[Betty Boop]

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/siYBlCPQ4X2Grs8rjOyC6bA/view.m?id=15&gid=news/blog/2011/jun/03/ratko-mladic-war-crimes-tribunal-live&cat=top-stories


It never ceases to amaze how tyrants like this often use weasly legal loopholes to delay and frustrate the process, when their whole demeanour previously is based on being tough, manly, fearless. Too ill to read the charges against him; what nonsense. I hope the judge doesnt allow the process to be delayed and obstructed as in the milosevic case.

Assuming he IS guilty and the evidence is there, of course.

I was watching the indictment being read out in full, eleven counts of crimes against humanity, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and persecution. FWIW one of the 'experts' reporting from the ICC, expected the trial to take years.The Radovan Karadzic trial has been ongoing since 2008, so I would expect more of the same.