“Everybody gets what he deserves”
General Ratko Mladic's ruthlessness was legendary: "Burn their brains!" he once bellowed as his men pounded Sarajevo with artillery fire.
Ratko Mladic, Colonel General, former Commander of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of the war against Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat and other non-Serb civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war.
Mostly known for personally leading his troops in the 1995 Serb on slaught against the UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica - where thousands of Muslim men and boys were killed - Mladic was indicted for genocide against the Bosnian town's population. Just hours before the massacre, Mladic handed out lollypops to Muslim children rounded up at the town's square and assured them all would be fine - even patting one child on the head. That sinister image is forever imprinted in the minds of Srebrenica survivors.
Ratko Mladič was born in Bosen village Božinovič in 1942. He became an army officer in Tito´s Yugoslavia. In 1991 when Yugoslavia started collapsing, he led the army against the Croatian forces near the Croatian city, today known as Knin. In May 1992 Bosen-Serbian Parliament decided to form a Bosen-Serbian army and Mladič became its general. He is considered as an initiator of shelling on Sarajevo. “That was Mladič who kept the siege of the Sarajevo for 3 years. Siege under cities he had known well, places where he grew up, where his mother and friends lived. Before he had to retreat, 12 000 people lost their lives in Sarajevo.” These words are from the book – “They wouldn´t hurt a fly”, writtennby Croatian writer and publisher Slavenka Drakuličova.
Mladič led his army during the attack at Muslim enclave Srebrenica in 1995. Srebrenica was then provided as a „safety zone“ by the UN. 40 000 Muslims were hiding there. Serbian forces were shelling Srebrenica for several days. Afterwards Mladič ´s army entered the city, separated men from women and killed no less than 7500 moors aged from 12 to 77 years. Soon after the war Mladič was accused of war crimes.
Mladič was brutal and arrogant, confident about his own military geniality. He didn´t respect anybody, not even the representatives of the international community, neither the commanders of foreign troops. The source of his arrogance grew out his character and his mental situation, he lived in his own mythological world what was noticeable from his public speeches where he used to mix up past and present in one sentence.
After the end of the war Mladič freely and luxuriousl lived in Belehrad thank Svobodan Miloševič the ex-Yugoslavian president. In the 2001 Serbia got under the international pressure to cooperate more with the Hague tribunal, Miloševič was arrested and Mladič disappeared like a ghost.
There were many theories about his shelter, some indications were suggesting that he still lives in Belehrad. There were many speculations about the arrest of Mladič in the past. After the pro-west government came to power in 2008, speculations were more real since the new government was attempting to get to the EU. The EU set as one of the main conditions the arrest Mladič and Karadžič to let this Balcanic country enter the EU.
Again the old wisdom applied: “That one who really wants to achieve something and tries hard, in the end he achieve his aim”. And finally, Mladič was arrested by the Serbian police and extraditabled to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY).
Sources:
http://www.channel4.com/news/who-is-ratko-mladic
http://article.wn.com/view/2011/05/30/mladi_ov_obhajca_sa_odvolal_gener_la_asi_aj_tak_odvez_do_haa/
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