After a long legal battle in the Hague, Ratko Mladic, the “butcher of the Balkans”, was finally and decisively pronounced guilty of genocide this week. He was also guilty of the persecution of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-95 war, terrorising the population of Sarajevo during the siege of the city, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage. Their reluctance was related to an unwillingness to face up to the moral obligation to intervene in defence of beleaguered communities. Yet in truth in Prijedor, Vlasenica and three other municipalities, the campaign of persecution in 1992 escalated to such a degree that it demonstrated precisely the intent to destroy Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats as a group. Nevertheless, the verdict against Mladic remains an important warning to dictators that, slowly but surely, they will be brought to account.

Source: The Irish Times June 09, 2021 20:37 UTC