prijava
SARAJEVO, June 4 (FENA) - I am not too optimistic when it comes to sentencing of war criminal Ratko Mladić, told FENA the president of the Regional Association of War Camp Detainees Mirsad Duratović.
Ratko Mladić, a general of the so-called Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, will be sentenced in The Hague on Tuesday, June 8, after appealing the first-instance verdict, but Duratović says he does not believe that justice will be served.
"What kills my hope for a fair verdict is the fact that Mladić will not be convicted for the genocide in Prijedor. I am also losing hope because the Tomašica mass grave and other such mass graves were not processed through the indictment as they should have been," he said.
He points out that the Hague Tribunal had the opportunity in the trial against Radovan Karadžić, but also in other trials, to prove that genocide was committed in Prijedor because there was an abundance of evidence that it would be superfluous to list all of it.
"Such a verdict is something we are all waiting for and which would bring some peace to the victims of genocide, but we are aware that the Hague Tribunal will not make such a judgment. We are also aware that if the Tribunal does not reach a verdict for genocide, it will not be based on the presented evidence but will be the result of political pressures because political relations are more important than satisfying justice and sending the message that crimes will be adequately named and punished," says Duratović.
In 2017, former war commander of the Army of the Republika Srpska, Ratko Mladić, was sentenced in the first instance verdict to life imprisonment for genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo and taking hostages from the members of the international peacekeeping force - UNPROFOR.
(FENA) S. R.
