War Victims Hope for Double Genocide Conviction for Ratko Mladic

The outlook for a conviction appears unpromising. Some experts have pointed out that former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic has already been acquitted of committing genocide in 1992, while others believe that the Hague prosecution did not gather enough evidence to prove the charge because it focused its efforts and resources on Srebrenica.

The prosecution's case for conviction

Ratko Mladic in court in The Hague during his appeal hearing in August 2020. Photo: UN-IRMCT/Leslie Hondebrink-Hermer.

The genocide accusation stems from the year the Bosnian war started, 1992, when there were a series of offensives all over the country by Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic's command - a wide-ranging campaign of ethnic cleansing intended to seize control over large swathes of territory.

In the Prijedor area in 1992, Bosnian Serb military and police forces and Serb paramilitaries launched an intensive campaign against Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats as they took the area by force, while in the Vlasenica area, most of the local Bosniak population was expelled. In both areas, thousands were imprisoned in Serb-run detention camps in dire conditions, and many inmates were abused, tortured, sexually assaulted and killed.

The indictment claims that from May 1992 onwards, Mladic participated in a "joint criminal enterprise" to permanently remove Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats from areas of the country that were coveted by the Bosnian Serbs.

The prosecution argues that in Prijedor, Vlasenica and three other municipalities - Foca, Kotor Varos and Sanski Most - the campaign of persecution escalated to such a degree that it demonstrated the intent to destroy Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats as a group. In other words, to commit genocide...

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