prijava
SARAJEVO, June 8 (FENA) - Representatives of the City of Sarajevo and civil society said today at the Sarajevo City Hall that they are satisfied with the life sentence for war criminal Ratko Mladić before the Hague Tribunal.
The President of the Council of the Mayor of Sarajevo for the Information Center on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Ivo Komšić, believes that the verdict was expected, but that it cannot be satisfaction for the victims.
"Of course, we all expected that Mladić would be convicted of genocide in those municipalities that the Council did not take into account at the request of the Prosecution. We know this from the scale of the victims and the brutality with which those victims were murdered in the municipalities that were excluded, including Prijedor," said Komšić.
As in the first-instance procedure, Mladić was convicted on 10 of the 11 counts in the indictment, but not for genocide in six BiH municipalities during 1992 - Prijedor, Sanski Most, Ključ, Kotor Varoš, Foča and Vlasenica.
The president of the Association of War Camp Detainees "Prijedor '92", Mirsad Duratović, said that in the context of Prijedor, the law won but justice lost.
"I don't know what else should have happened to us Prijedor citizens so that the Trial and Appeals Council could muster the strength to say YES, there was an intention in Prijedor and genocide took place in Prijedor. The largest mass graves, the number of war camps, expelled or demolished religious buildings, destroyed settlements, cultural and historical monuments were not enough. Today, Prijedor is the city with the largest number of convicted war criminals. Regardless of the verdict, we know what happened to us and we will not give up the fight for the truth, but we must respect the verdict and seek justice elsewhere," Duratović pointed out.
The president of the Union of Civilian Victims of War, Senida Karović, emphasized that Ratko Mladić was guilty of 1,425 days of the siege of the city of Sarajevo, 11,541 killed citizens of Sarajevo, of whom 1,601 were children.
"Mlaidć is guilty for all the sufferings of Sarajevo without electricity and water. He is guilty of everything that unfortunately cannot be brought back. That is why I am still happy today because he was found guilty. I am sad because I wished that he would be convicted for Prijedor and Tomašica mass grave, since we know the scope of the crime that happened in these municipalities," said Karović.
(FENA) S. R.
