The reaction in Bosnia to the news of Ratko Mladić’s conviction for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity was as divided as the country itself, more than 20 years after the end of the civil wars that followed the break-up of the Yugoslav state.
Among Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) the most common response was relief that the trial was finally over and that Mladić – unlike the Serbian leader, Slobodan Milošević – had lived long enough to hear the guilty verdict. The relief was tinged with regret that justice had been such a long time coming and when it came, it appeared so puny alongside the scale of pain and loss.
(June 1, 1991) The breakup of the former Yugoslavia
The breakup of the former Yugoslavia formally begins when Slovenia and Croatia declare independence. The Serb-led Yugoslav army withdraws from Slovenia after a 10-day conflict, but the war in Croatia that followed would last until 1995.
(April 1, 1992) War breaks out in Bosnia
Bosnian Serbs swiftly take control of more than two-thirds of Bosnia and launch the siege of Sarajevo, headed by Ratko Mladić, who becomes the Bosnian Serb army commander a month later. The siege lasts 1,460 days, during which more than 11,500 people die.
(July 1, 1995) Srebrenica massacre
Mladić's troops capture Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed. Nato bombs Bosnian Serb positions following reports of the slaughter.
The international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicts Mladić and Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadžić on charges including genocide.
(November 1, 1995) Dayton agreement signed
The Dayton agreement is signed, ending the war and creating two mini-states in Bosnia: a Bosnian-Serb one and a Muslim-Croat one.
(January 1, 1997) Mladić goes into hiding
Nato peacekeepers and western intelligence agencies operating in Bosnia step up attempts to track down war crimes suspects, but Mladić is sheltered by loyalists in Serbia. He is seen attending football games and eating at Belgrade restaurants.
(May 26, 2011) Mladić arrested
Following intense pressure from the international community on Serbia, Mladić is arrested in Serbia.
He appears in court at the UN tribunal for the first time in June but refuses to enter pleas to the charges against him. At a second hearing in July, judges enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.
(December 1, 2016) Trial hears closing statements
The trial in The Hague is arguably the most significant war crimes case in Europe since the Nuremberg tribunal, in part because of the scale of the atrocities involved. Over 530 days, the UN tribunal hears from 591 witnesses and examines nearly 10,000 exhibits concerning 106 separate crimes.
During closing statements, prosecutors urge judges to convict Mladić on all counts and sentence him to life in prison. Defence attorneys call for acquittal.
(November 22, 2017) Mladić convicted
More than 20 years after the Srebrenica massacre, the now 74-year-old Mladić is sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Delivering the verdicts, the judge said Mladić’s crimes “rank among the most heinous known to humankind and include genocide and extermination”.
In the offices of the Sarajevo daily, Dnevni Avaz, Sead Numanović, a journalist, said staff watched in silence as the verdict and sentencing was delivered. “After hearing life in prison, people started applauding, many crying in relief,” he said.
“I was silent, reflecting on the past, my memories as a young guy in besieged Sarajevo, not aware of evil surrounding me. I sensed some kind of emptiness.”
In Srebrenica, scene of the 1995 massacre that the tribunal confirmed constituted a genocide, that double-edged response was also apparent.
Nedžiba Salihović, whose father, husband and son were murdered, jumped to her feet the moment the life sentence was delivered.
“Thank you, God! I kiss you God, for the sake of our sons!” she cried, according to Agence France-Presse. “Mladić will die in The Hague. I’m so happy that justice has been done.”
But others said the verdict was all but meaningless in the face of the slaughter of more than 7,000 men and boys.
“Even if he lives 1,000 times and is sentenced 1,000 times to life in prison, justice would still not be served,” Ajsa Umirovic, who lost 42 relatives in the massacre, said.
Since the end of the war, Bosniak survivors have returned to the area and live alongside Serbs, with whom they share local government, but the uneasy cohabitation does not mean a shared view of history. Bosniaks say that they get along day by day with their Serb neighbours, as long as they do not mention what happened all around them in 1995.
Down the road from Srebrenica in Bratunac, posters were on display on Wednesday showing Mladić in his wartime uniform and describing him as a hero.
Denial of the atrocities committed by Mladic’s troops has become commonplace among the Bosnian Serb leadership.
Milorad Dodik, the leading politician in the Serb half of the country, Republika Srpska, claimed on Wednesday that the whole purpose of the Hague war crimes tribunal was to demonise Serbs and called on Serbs to “forever erase every mention” of the court proceedings from their school textbooks. The history of the war has anyway largely been ignored in the Bosnian Serb school syllabus.
In Serbia itself, the official reaction was more cagey. President Aleksandar Vučić, a former ultra-nationalist who is now seeking to strike a balance in relations with the EU and Russia, alleged that the court was biased against Serbs, but added: “We are ready to accept our responsibility [for war crimes] while the others are not.”
The trial should mark a turning point, Vučić said, bidding “farewell to all those who want to return us to the past; we want to go to the future”.
Vladan Dinić, the editor of Svedok magazine in Belgrade, said: “This puts an end to the court which, for a civil war in former Yugoslavia, sentenced Serbs to 12 centuries of prison, and Croats and Muslims to two centuries – with the latter being mostly convicted for the crimes against one another, not the Serbs.
“The consequence of the verdict will only be felt by Serbia and not Mladić , who due to ill health and the fact that he was denied the right to be seen by his doctors, probably will not be around for much longer.
There was some disappointment in Bosnia that Mladic was not found guilty on one of the two counts of genocide, in municipalities like Prijedor in the west of the country where there were murderous prison camps and mass killings. As in Srebrenica, the Serb authorities in Serbia have resisted acknowledging what happened.
“To me it is more important to dismantle this legacy of his that still lingers in my hometown than whether judges had the courage to call the crime what it was.”said Refik Hodžić, a Prijedor survivor. He added that the verdict left him with a mixture of closure and rage.
“The rage comes from yet another manifestation of cowardice as he tried to subvert the proceedings and avoid the verdict in the most farcical of ways,” Hodžić said. “To think that this coward was the master of life and death of tens of thousands of people and that he still enjoys a hero status among a good percentage of Serbs depresses me.”
In Sarajevo, Numanović observed: “Life will go on as it is now,” but warned that the chances of reconciliation would have to be left for future generations.
“With the current establishments in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia in particular, it is mission impossible.”
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
