Mothers of Srebrenica victims speak with @RSE_Balkan in Srebrenica today as Mladic’s trial begins.
“He has better [treatment] at the Hague Tribunal than I can have in the Serb Republic. They do not let us watch it [on live TV] when we want, like it’s not civilization. He cannot get the proper punishment. The mothers [of Srebrenica] should have been his judges – like he was a judge to our kids.
“No matter what sentence he gets, it will not make up for our sons. They were waiting 16 years to detain him. Shame on Serbia. I just had one wish to bring him to Bijeljina, to get him to our courtroom so that he can look into the eyes of [Srebrenica’s mothers] as it looks like he does not believe he did it. Why does he need a lawyer? Why does he postpone the trial for 6 months? How come that he is so important and so expensive? Whatever punishment he gets, it will not make up for our sons.”
.@RSE_Balkan interviews Natasa Kandic in Belgrade about the start of Mladic’s trial The Hague.
“When all of the former political leadership was arrested and transferred to the Hague and later convicted, that provoked no discomfort in Serbia, nor did it lead to a debate inside state institutions or the public.”
“Was genocide carried out only in Srebrenica or in other parts of Bosnia as well? If the prosecution proves that it happened in other parts as well, then that picture about the responsibility for crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina will be much more complete and it will open space for evaluating the role of Serbia and its armed forces in the execution of that criminal act.”
Read more about the opening of the trial here. Follow RFE/RL’s Balkan Service on Twitter: @RSE_Balkan
Ratko Mladic’s war crimes trial begins today at the Hague. These are people’s impressions:
Ljubo Mandic from Kralinovik, Ratko Mladic’s hometown, speaking Tuesday to Reuters in Kralinovik.
“He’s never done anything bad in his life. He was just a career [military] man. But he never killed, he never slaughtered anyone.”
Fadila Efendic, who lost her husband and son in the Srebrenica massacre, speaking Tuesday (May 15) with Reuters in Srebrenica.
“If these judges lost their children as we did, they would be more just and would rule differently. But they will rule as they think is right and not as I and relatives of others would want them to do it. But I wish that other war criminals face justice as well so that everyone knows that justice exists and that one cannot go unpunished [and do] whatever he wants to do.”
Read more about the opening of the trial here. Follow RFE/RL’s Balkan Service on Twitter: @RSE_Balkan
ICTY prosecutor, Dermot Groome at Mladic trial opening:
“Two decades ago this past month, Bosnian leaders commenced an attack on their fellow citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Civilians who were targeted for no other reason than they were an ethnicity other than Serb. Their land, their lives, their dignity attacked in a coordinated and carefully planned manner. In some locations, this attack arose to the level of genocide.”
ICTY prosecutor Dermot Groome making the opening statement today in the trial of Ratko Mladic in The Hague.
Read more about the opening of the trial here. Follow RFE/RL’s Balkan Service on Twitter: @RSE_Balkan
Design by Simon Fletcher. Powered by Tumblr.
© Copyright 2010
