Daily Times

On 22 November, 2017 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia backed by the UN in Hague, convicted former Serb General Ratko Mladic and sentenced him to life imprisonment for his involvement in crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia Herzegovina. With the completion of this trial, the bloodiest chapter in Europe post-World War II has come to a close. By the time he was convicted in the Hague on 22 November, the world had learned much about the killings for which Mladic bore personal responsibility — in Sarajevo, Kozarac and many other cities.

Bone by bone, the remains of 6,971 victims from Srebrenica had been exhumed, identified and reburied. Survivors had come forward to share what they had experienced. A high-ranking serbian officer had acknowledged his own role in the massacre. Paradoxically, the verdict has been announced at a time when Europe itself is undergoing tumultuous times and a rising tide of political differences based on racial identity can be seen in Europe. Experts say there could be spillover effects of the recent war crime tribunal’s decision in the future.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Hague came to the conclusion that the now 75 year old Ratko Mladic, wanted a separate Serbian state and that in pursuit of this ambition, he inflicted atrocities upon Muslims and non-Serbs including Croats living in Bosnia. The killing spree began in 1992 and continued till 1995.In these four years, the most horrendous events were witnessed; people were brutally killed and their bodies mutilated. The capital city of Bosnia, known as Sarajevo was enveloped by the Serb forces where Muslims were killed en masse through the use of sniper rifles and their houses destroyed by shelling. Approximately 8000 Muslims, including infant children and women lost their lives and the camps established under the auspices of United Nations in Srebrenica were also attacked by the Serb forces. It was not until the intervention of NATO forces that the massacre of innocent Muslims at the hands of Serb forces was brought to a halt. Mladic defended his position by citing history as justification for the crimes carried out by his army. The Dahis were Muslim mercenaries in the service of the Ottoman Empire and had brutally put down a Serbian insurrection in the early 19th century. For Mladic, the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica were modern-day ‘Turks’ and had to pay with their lives for the deeds of some distant co-religionists nearly two centuries earlier.

On the one hand, the verdict enunciated by the tribunal has explicitly drawn a line upholding the principles of international human rights laws, but on the other hand, the political scenario in Europe remains uncertain. In juxtaposition with the Balkan wars, the eruption of ethnic differences and nationalistic fervour in European politics is gaining intensity

The judge of the International Criminal tribunal observed that such incidents of barbarity against humanity had never been witnessed before. On one hand the verdict enunciated by the tribunal has explicitly drawn a line upholding the principles of international human rights laws, but on the other hand the political scenario in Europe remains uncertain.

In juxtaposition with the Balkan wars, the eruption of ethnic differences and nationalistic fervour in European politics is gaining intensity day by day. Although this intensity has not risen to the exponential height witnessed in Bosnia in 1992, the future may yet have a deep impact on Europe’s political scenario. This could have catastrophic consequences. Recently in Austria, voters were increasingly inclined towards right-wing parties. A similar pattern was witnessed in Hungary and Poland. In Germany, the right-wing party was able to secure a huge number of votes which ushered it into the Bundestag (German Parliament) for the first time. Recently, Chancellor Angela Merkel also had to face a lot of resistance due to her willingness to let in Muslim refugees from the Middle East.

Britain is on the verge of completing the process of exiting the European Union. Keeping in consideration the fact that the majority of the Brexit supporters demonstrated their concern and feeling insecure towards immigrants; likewise the separatist movement of Catalonia is also being seen in Spain as based on nationalistic fervour and ideological differences with the centre.

The tribunal’s verdict is a good sign, but the wounds of the Bosnians cannot be healed. On the other hand, Ratko Mladic has vowed to file an appeal against the verdict. The present Serbian president has also expressed his reservations regarding the verdict by declaring it as a campaign to malign Serbia. He has also blamed former US president Bill Clinton for opposing the creation of a separate Serbian state by activating NATO forces against Serbia.

It was not until2008 that Serbia finally achieved independence. It now has hopes to become a member of the European Union by 2025. In Geneva, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, described Mladi? as the ‘epitome of evil’ and said his conviction was a ‘momentous victory for justice’.

In my view, the trial in the Hague, is the most significant war crimes case in Europe since the Nuremberg trials.

The writer the writer is a human rights and constitutional lawyer

Published in Daily Times, December 1^st 2017.