On the day when the final verdict against war criminal Ratko Mladic is expected before the Hague Tribunal, Reuters published a report on the residents of Sarajevo who survived the 43-month siege of the city and who hope that justice will be served.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague, sentenced Mladic to life in prison in 2017, and he was convicted of terrorizing Sarajevo civilians during the 43-month siege of the city, the longest siege of a major city ever recorded in the world.
“I don’t think the verdict should be changed because it represents the end of all the accidents behind us. Someone has to pay for all these children who were killed here,” Zdravka Gvozdar, the mother of a boy killed by a grenade from a Serb position as a nine-year-old, told Reuters while standing at a monument dedicated to the 1,600 children killed during the siege.
Further, this reputable media outlet recalls how Bosnian Serb forces, aided by the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), killed about 11,000 people by shelling and sniper fire from surrounding hills during the 1992-1995 war in BiH.
Fikret Grabovica, the father of an 11-year-old girl killed in the shelling of Sarajevo, also points out that Mladic should be remembered as “the worst criminal in the region’s history”.
As he stated, he is disappointed because some promote Mladic as a national hero, and among
To recall, murals dedicated to Mladic appeared in cities all over Republika Srpska.
The text also states that many Serbs consider Mladic a hero and a defender, while they say that the Hague Tribunal is biased. BiH Presidency Chairman Milorad Dodik was also mentioned, who said that Mladic was a soldier, not a criminal.
“The verdict against Mladic will not help change people’s perception of what happened during the war. And 25 years later, I feel as if the war is not over,” said Mela Softic, who spent her childhood in besieged Sarajevo, Klix
