Bosnian Serb General Mladic To Stand Trial For Crimes Against Humanity

Ratko Mladic, the former commanding general of the Bosnian Serb Army during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992-1995, having been a fugitive for 16 years, stood in the dock at the International Court in The Hague last Friday, was arraigned, and will stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity that were committed under his command.

His once pugilistic and braggadocious pose was gone–he had aged considerably and a stroke had left his arm frail.

Mladic’s ideologically driven military operations were  responsible  for the siege of Sarajevo, the longest war exacted on any city in history to macabre results:  the murders of 10,000 people, including 1,600 children. Sarajevans ran out of space to bury their dead and were forced to use a football field as a cemetery. The land encircling a 1984 Olympics facility, that was once the pride and joy of  all Bosnians–but especially so for Sarajevans–had sadly become a burial ground for eternity.

Mladic’s lustful and lethal handiwork was not satisfied with the destruction of Sarajevo. His forces took over Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, a small village near the Serbian border and before the day was done it is estimated that 8,000 Muslim men and boys–all civilians, were murdered by Mladic’s army and buried in unmarked mass graves dotting the beautiful landscape of Eastern Bosnia that belies these monstrous crimes.

Mladic, arrested in Northern Serbia on May 26th, was wanted for some of the most heinous war crimes committed on the continent of Europe since World War II. There are not adequate words to describe the horror this man wrought upon the Muslim and to some extent, the Croat population of Bosnia. He was a monster, whose daughter also suffered for his conduct, when she committed suicide in 1994 while studying at the Medical Faculty in Belgrade during the war.

In the aftermath of the Bosnian War, I was privileged to work on the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords, brokered by the Clinton Administration in November 1995. As a human rights officer and later as political advisor and spokesperson for the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, I was deeply involved in assisting the peoples and the governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina confront the consequences of the war, while transitioning to a post-conflict, democratic form of government.

 

The lesson is that difference, when demonized by reckless leaders in societies that eventually spiral out-of-control, end up as broken shards of communities, with such deep enmity that it will surely take at least one generation to recover for Bosnia, if not more, as one such example. In America, there are those who still argue the purpose and cause of the Civil War, an occurrance of nearly 150 years ago.

 

This experience changed my life forever and brought me to new understanding about the long-term viability of states, when an effort is engaged to push for reconciliation between former warring parties, it can not be accomplished without providing mechanisms that truly afford those aggrieved parties with some tangible form of justice.

The arrest by Serbian police of Mladic is a huge step forward for Bosnia and provides an opportunity for Serbia to begin a legitimate European Union accession process.

No one should ever forget what Mladic and his cohort of dangerous and grandiose leaders heaped upon the peoples of the Former Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic and the subordinates who carried out their orders, directly participated in the destruction of this country out of ideology and hatred of “other.”

An accounting of Mladic’s crimes  has now begun, and so long overdue.

To actually see Mladic standing in the dock at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia brings some sense of justice — that finally, the law caught up with Mladic and he has been justly called to task before an international  court and the world for an accounting of his unspeakable crimes.

Bosnia and countries like it, including in our own (the current hatred exhibited in the U.S. toward immigrants, Muslims, people of Arab descent and LGBT persons), present a cautionary tale about the repudiation of diversity. The lesson is that difference, when demonized by reckless leaders in societies that eventually spiral out-of-control, end up as broken shards of communities, with such deep enmity that it will surely take at least one generation to recover for Bosnia, if not more, as one such example.  In America, there are those who still argue the purpose and cause of the Civil War, an occurrance of nearly 150 years ago.

Thus, it is not surprising in the 16 years since the war ended, that a nascent LGBT movement in Sarajevo can barely get itself off the ground without facing violence in 2008. It was driven underground a year later when it chose to celebrate a virtual Pride celebration via billboards and on-line public service announcements and skipped staging a 2010 Pride event altogether as it regroups.

For countries to be sustainable in post-conflict, a safe process must unfold that embraces difference as a strength within Bosnia and the region as a whole. While Mladic’s arrest is important for Serbia, its democracy remains quite fragile and without wholesale acknowledgement by its government leaders, could simply be a “one off” availing a calculating Serbia access to the process to enter the EU, without admitting responsibility for terrible crimes.   Croatia and Kosovo’s leaders must demonstrate that delivering war criminals to the Hague and through their national courts, establishes a resolute respect for the rule of law, thus an accounting that can set new terms for a peaceful future that is sustainable.

So next month at Potocari, when newly identified remains are buried in an annual ritual of sorrow, it will mark the first time that Ratko Mladic, the executioner of Srebrenica, is behind bars. May peace be a gift and a salve to all those sorrowful souls who have suffered such heartbreaking loss. May peace be your gift.

(Image: Srebrenica Coffins Prepared for Burial at Potochari, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2004, by Tanya Domi.)

Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.

Read Tanya Domi’s most-​recent previous article at The New Civil Rights Movement, “Weinergate: Las Vegas Bettors Playing The Odds.“