The representatives of the Association Mothers of Srebrenica, the detainees of BiH, the Association of parents of the killed children of Sarajevo, yesterday departed to The Hague. Their only wish – to hear the strictest punishment for the General of the Army of RS, Ratko Mladic, in the courtroom of the Hague Tribunal. They want to hear that he is found guilty of all counts of the extensive indictment.
“There is no excuse. There is no justification for killing people. To expel people from their territory and their city and even say that they fought for their homeland. Where is my homeland, then,” commented Kada Hotic.
“He entered with his troops and ordered that these people must die. My son and husband and my brothers and my relatives – I counted up to 56 – all of them ended up under the ground and everyone was alive until Mladic entered Potocari,” added Hotic.
“I’ve been searching for the bones of my husband and son for over 25 years, and I never found them. That is just what he did to me, not talking about the tens of thousands of people who are still surviving and God knows if they will ever manage to find a grave where they can recite Fatiha to their child, husband, brother, sister, mother, father,” said Zekija Avdibegovic.
Besides genocide in Srebrenica, the indictment charges him with genocide in the municipalities of Kljuc, Sanski Most, Vlasenica, Foca, Kotor Varos, and Prijedor. He is charged with the siege of Sarajevo as well, where thousands of people were killed.
In the period of three and a half years about 1300 Sarajevo children were killed.
“This is very important for BiH, very important for the region. You know that there are always at least three stories in BiH for every event – and the truth is only one – it is not the role of the ICTY to create truth, coexistence, reconciliation in BiH, but its role is to work on revealing the truth, and I think that the verdict will ultimately have an effect on reconciliation in BiH,” stated Jasmin Meskovic.
The world media regularly reports on the upcoming verdict. Thus, some of them focused, among others, on his behavior in the courtroom. He is not aware of his guilt. He is convinced that he acted morally, in a military sense even brilliantly. He has no respect for the Court – he refuses to rise or take off his hat. He was removed from the courtroom several times because of the nationalist outburst. And never, cited foreign media, he never showed even tiniest sign of regret.
(Source: N1)
