Ratko Mladic's whirlwind week: From war crimes fugitive to Hague inmate
Ratko Mladic is set to be arraigned Friday at the UN tribunal at The Hague on 11 charges of war crimes for commanding Bosnian Serb forces during the Balkan wars.
A participant holds a photo of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic during a rally to protest against the arrest of Mladic in front of the Serbian embassy in Moscow on June 1.
Sergei Karpukhi/Reuters
Paris
Ratko Mladic is set to be arraigned Friday before the UN tribunal at The Hague as the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb military figure of the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Charges against Mr. Mladic include genocide, persecution, extermination, and murder. The indictment submitted today was revised from 15 to 11 charges to “mirror” those of his Bosnian Serb counterpart and political boss, Radovan Karadzic, who was caught in Belgrade two years ago.
Mladic’s arrest after 16 years at large, his speedy extradition from Serbia, and his placement in isolation last night at Scheveningen Prison at The Hague ends a whirlwind that started less than a week ago.
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“Mladic is the most culpable figure to be prosecuted. He was the commander, had command responsibility, and gave direct orders. He is on video giving direct orders at Srebrenica. He wasn’t a guy behind a desk at Banja Luka or Pale [the Bosnian Serb headquarters], but he was on the scene ordering the shots. So he needs to be prosecuted," says Michael Scharf, war crimes specialist at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, cofounder of the Public International Law and Policy Group, and a former legal official at the US State Department.
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