If anyone is qualified to get into the mind of a mass
murderer, it is David Rohde. The former New
York Times reporter -- now a columnist for Reuters news agency -- has the
unique distinction of being held captive by both the Bosnian Serbs and the
Taliban at the height of their ideological struggle against the West. He has
also written a 1997 book, Endgame,
that still stands up as the most authoritative account of the fall of
Srebrenica in July 1995 and the subsequent killings of around 8,000 Bosnian
Muslim men.
During a
recent conference on Srebrenica hosted by the City University of New York,
David made the interesting observation that the Taliban and Bosnian Serb forces
under the command of Ratko Mladic shared a very similar sense of victimization. During his seven
months in Taliban captivity in 2008, he had to endure long lectures from
his kidnappers about the supposed western conspiracy to blame Muslims for 9/11
and force them to convert to Christianity. He had listened to similar
diatribes, from the Orthodox Christian point of view, while
being held by the Bosnian Serbs thirteen years earlier. (He had made an
unauthorized trip into Republika Srpska while attempting to investigate the
Srebrenica massacre.) His Serb captors claimed that Muslim women were under
instructions to produce as many children as possible, in order to turn Bosnia
into an Islamic state.
David told me later that he had experienced a similar
conspiratorial mindset from Hindu extremists in India and Sinhalese
nationalists in Sri Lanka. What most alarmed him was "not so much the human
tendency to be sadistic, to know that you are doing wrong and enjoy it, but our
ability to rationalize almost anything we do.
Both the Taliban and the Bosnian Serbs felt they were completely
justified in carrying out these horrible atrocities."
I have included extracts from my interview with Rohde above.
Off-camera, we also discussed Mladic's motivation in ordering the executions of
thousands of Muslim prisoners of war. He pointed to the following footage,
showing Mladic's entry into Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, as the best evidence
for his state of mind on that day. At
1:49 in the footage, shot by one of his soldiers, the Bosnian Serb commander
talks about finally "taking revenge" against "the Turks" for a massacre that took
place more than a century earlier. He describes the fall of Srebrenica as a
"gift to the Serbian people."
Megalomania played a role in the tragedy of Srebrenica. According
to Rohde, Mladic "saw this as his moment in history to pay back ‘the Turks,'" as
he called Muslims, for crimes supposedly committed against the Serbs. This was
his chance to "establish his fame" as a Serbian national hero.
David believes that Mladic bought into the Bosnian Serb
propaganda line that he was merely "defending his people" against the crimes of
the other side. As justification for what happened at Srebrenica, Mladic has
frequently pointed to raids against nearby Serbian villages carried out by
forces loyal to a Muslim
warlord named Naser Oric. "A rough equivalency
developed in the Serb mind between the killings of Serb civilians and the
killings of Muslims," Rohde says. "The numbers are not even close. We are
talking about 8,000 Muslims versus several hundred Serbs."
But there was also an important international dimension to
Mladic's thinking, David believes. "He had earlier gotten away with ethnic
cleansing throughout eastern Bosnia. The Serbs had learned from the passivity
of the West that they could push further and further, and not get punished for
it."
Could the Srebrenica massacre have been prevented?
Certainly, says Rohde. He is convinced that Mladic would
have "backed off" had the United Nations and NATO responded to Serb advances
with air strikes as soon as they began encroaching on the U.N. "safe area." David
puts much of the blame for the fiasco on the permanent members of the Security
Council, such as the United States, Britain, and France, for producing "vague
Security Council regulations with all those loopholes" that provided an excuse
for non-action.
"They did not give U.N.
commanders on the ground enough troops to fight off the Serbs," he says.
What It’s Like to Chill Out With Whom the Rest of the World Considers As The Most Ruthless Men: Ratko Mladic, Goran Hadzic and Radovan Karadzic (+) Confessions of a Female War Crimes Investigator By Jill Louise Starr NJ USA
Retrospectively, it was all so simple, natural and matter of fact being on a boat restaurant in Belgrade, sitting with, laughing, drinking a two hundred bottle of wine and chatting about war and peace while Ratko Mladic held my hand. Mladic, a man considered the world’s most ruthless war criminal since Adolf Hitler, still at large and currently having a five million dollar bounty on his head for genocide by the international community. Yet there I was with my two best friends at the time, a former Serbian diplomat, his wife, and Ratko Mladic just chilling. There was no security, nothing you’d ordinarily expect in such circumstances. Referring to himself merely as, Sharko; this is the story of it all came about.
Diplomatic / International Relations Consultant & War Crimes Investigator
- War
- Peace
- Preventive Diplomatic Strategies
- International Law
- Charitable Causes
- International Business
- International Political Economy
- Human Rights - Politics
- War Crimes Investigations
- Anti-Terrorism
- Law Projects Center Funded Projects (YCICC) Internationally
http://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite
Irrefutable Proof ICTY Is Corrupt Court/Irrefutable Proof the Hague Court Cannot Legitimately Prosecute Karadzic Case By Jill Starr
http://picasaweb.google.com/lpcyusa/IrrefutableProofICTYIsCorruptCourtIrrefutabl#
(The Documentary Secret United Nations ICC Meeting Papers Scanned Images) OR http://community.jigsaw.com/t5/media/gallerypage/user-id/903610#
This legal technicality indicates the Hague must dismiss charges against Dr Karadzic and others awaiting trials in the Hague jail; like it or not.
Unfortunately for the Signatures Of the Rome Statute United Nations member states instituting the ICC & ICTY housed at the Hague, insofar as the, Radovan Karadzic, as with the other Hague cases awaiting trial there, I personally witnessed these United Nations member states having a substantial conversations, and, openly speaking about trading judicial appointments and verdicts for financial funding when I attended the 2001 ICC Preparatory Meetings at the UN in Manhattan making the iCTY and ICC morally incapable trying Radovan Karazdic and others.
I witnessed with my own eyes and ears when attending the 2001 Preparatory Meetings to establish an newly emergent International Criminal Court, the exact caliber of criminal corruption running so very deeply at the Hague, that it was a perfectly viable topic of legitimate conversation in those meetings I attended to debate trading verdicts AND judicial appointments, for monetary funding.
Jilly wrote:*The rep from Spain became distraught and when her country’s proposal was not taken to well by the chair of the meeting , then Spain argued in a particularly loud and noticably strongly vocal manner, “Spain (my country) strongly believes if we contribute most financial support to the Hague’s highest court, that ought to give us and other countries feeding it financially MORE direct power over its decisions.”
((((((((((((((((((((((((( ((((((((((((((((((((((((( Instead of censoring the country representative from Spain for even bringing up this unjust, illegal and unfair judicial idea of bribery for international judicial verdicts and judicial appointments, all country representatives present in the meeting that day all treated the Spain proposition as a ”totally legitimate topic” discussed and debated it between each other for some time. I was quite shocked! The idea was “let’s discuss it.” "It’s a great topic to discuss."
Some countries agreed with Spain’s propositions while others did not. The point here is, bribery for judicial verdicts and judicial appointments was treated as a totally legitimate topic instead of an illegitimate topic which it is in the meeting that I attended in 2001 that day to establish the ground work for a newly emergent international criminal court.))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
In particular., since “Spain” was so overtly unafraid in bringing up this topic of trading financial funding the ICC for influence over its future judicial appointments and verdicts in front of every other UN member state present that day at the UN, “Spain” must have already known by previous experience the topic of bribery was “socially acceptable” for conversation that day. They must have previously spoke about bribing the ICTY and ICC before in meetings; this is my take an international sociological honor student.
SPAIN’s diplomatic gesture of international justice insofar as, Serbia, in all of this is, disgusting morally!SPAIN HAS TAUGHT THE WORLD THE TRUE DEFINITION OF AN “INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT.”
I represented the state interests’ of the Former Yugoslavia, in Diplomat Darko Trifunovic’s absence in those meetings and I am proud to undertake this effort on Serbia’s behalf.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lpcyusa (My Political Satire Blog)
Diplomatic / International Relations Consultant & War Crimes Investigator
- War
- Peace
- Preventive Diplomatic Strategies
- International Law
- Charitable Causes
- International Business
- International Political Economy
- Human Rights - Politics
- War Crimes Investigations
- Anti-Terrorism
- Law Projects Center Funded Projects (YCICC) Internationally
http://sites.google.com/site/jillstarrsite
Sure, there are a lot of cases now tried for heinous crimes committed again the community. Trials for the old people who are in power in the World War I or World War II is now tried even though it was a long before history but they are abusive of their power and have to pay for it.
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Its so heartbreaking to see that the one who let evils like Mladic carryout their heinous act so that they can come and develop the area when they could have prevented the destruction in the first place and then later become heroes and Salvatore for the masses. They forget to build links with the sufferers in order to get what they want from the destroyed lands.
I'm not sure if there are extremists and militants anywhere that don't feel a sense of victimization. There isn't much impetus to murder, rape and torture or other crimes against humanity unless you feel fear, legitimate or unfounded. Anything can be rationalized away once fear takes over.
General Ratko Mladic was the Bosnian Serb army chief throughout the Bosnian war - and the man many hold responsible for the worst atrocities in that bloody conflict.
Along with the Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, he came to symbolise the Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Croats and Muslims.
Indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide and other crimes against humanity, his evasion of justice over 16 years became an embarrassment to Serbia and the biggest thorn in its relations with the West.
Serbian nationalism motivated him during the war, which he saw as an opportunity to avenge five centuries of occupation by Muslim Turks. He even referred to Bosnian Muslims as "Turks", a term he used to insult them.
There may also have been personal reasons for his ruthlessness.
A year before the Srebrenica atrocity, his much-loved daughter Ana, a medical student, shot herself with his pistol in Belgrade, in an act said by people close to Gen Mladic to have hardened his character.
General Ratko Mladic was the Bosnian Serb army chief throughout the Bosnian war - and the man many hold responsible for the worst atrocities in that bloody conflict.
Along with the Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, he came to symbolise the Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Croats and Muslims.
Indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal on charges of genocide and other crimes against humanity, his evasion of justice over 16 years became an embarrassment to Serbia and the biggest thorn in its relations with the West.
Serbian nationalism motivated him during the war, which he saw as an opportunity to avenge five centuries of occupation by Muslim Turks. He even referred to Bosnian Muslims as "Turks", a term he used to insult them.
There may also have been personal reasons for his ruthlessness.
A year before the Srebrenica atrocity, his much-loved daughter Ana, a medical student, shot herself with his pistol in Belgrade, in an act said by people close to Gen Mladic to have hardened his character.
Another bloody event may have marked the eventual "butcher of Srebrenica" on his second birthday.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
image of Allan Little Allan Little BBC News
Ratko Mladic was ferocious in pursuit of what he saw as the destiny of the Serb nation.
He oversaw the siege and bombardment of Sarajevo, in which 12,000 died.
He was a pioneer of the technique known as ethnic cleansing. Hundreds of thousands of non-Serbs were driven from their homes in the brutal campaign to create an ethnically pure Serb state in Croatia and Bosnia.
And he commanded the men who murdered at least 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.
He was fanatical but also fearless - and this made him a folk hero among those he led. It also explains how he evaded capture for 16 years.
His father, a partisan, was killed that day in 1945 fighting pro-Nazi Croatian Ustasha troops.
Born in the south Bosnian village of Kalinovik and brought up in Tito's Yugoslavia, Ratko Mladic became a regular officer in the Yugoslav People's Army.
A career soldier, he inspired passionate devotion among his soldiers.
As the country began to disintegrate in 1991, he was posted to lead the Yugoslav army's 9th Corps against Croatian forces at Knin, and was promoted to the rank of general the same year.
Soon after taking command of the Yugoslav Army in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, he was appointed to lead a new Bosnian Serb army created in 1992.
He is considered to have been one of the prime movers in the bloody siege of Sarajevo.
His arrogant disregard for civilian casualties came through in the commands he issued to his gunners pounding the city in early 1992.
"Burn their brains!" was one. "Shell them until they're on the edge of madness," was another.
But the most notorious attack on civilians was to come in July 1995, at Srebrenica, a Bosnian Muslim enclave under UN protection.
The worst atrocity in Europe since World War II occurred after Gen Mladic's forces overran the town and rounded up Muslim men and boys aged between 12 and 77.
Hours before the shooting began, the general himself was seen handing out sweets to Muslim children in the main square, even patting one on the head.
Then, over five days, at least 7,500 captives were killed, reportedly machine-gunned in groups of 10 before being buried by bulldozer in mass graves.
Later that year, the UN war crimes tribunal indicted Gen Mladic on two counts of genocide for the Sarajevo siege and the Srebrenica massacre.
Another bloody event may have marked the eventual "butcher of Srebrenica" on his second birthday.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
image of Allan Little Allan Little BBC News
Ratko Mladic was ferocious in pursuit of what he saw as the destiny of the Serb nation.
He oversaw the siege and bombardment of Sarajevo, in which 12,000 died.
He was a pioneer of the technique known as ethnic cleansing. Hundreds of thousands of non-Serbs were driven from their homes in the brutal campaign to create an ethnically pure Serb state in Croatia and Bosnia.
And he commanded the men who murdered at least 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.
He was fanatical but also fearless - and this made him a folk hero among those he led. It also explains how he evaded capture for 16 years.
His father, a partisan, was killed that day in 1945 fighting pro-Nazi Croatian Ustasha troops.
Born in the south Bosnian village of Kalinovik and brought up in Tito's Yugoslavia, Ratko Mladic became a regular officer in the Yugoslav People's Army.
A career soldier, he inspired passionate devotion among his soldiers.
As the country began to disintegrate in 1991, he was posted to lead the Yugoslav army's 9th Corps against Croatian forces at Knin, and was promoted to the rank of general the same year.
Soon after taking command of the Yugoslav Army in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, he was appointed to lead a new Bosnian Serb army created in 1992.
He is considered to have been one of the prime movers in the bloody siege of Sarajevo.
His arrogant disregard for civilian casualties came through in the commands he issued to his gunners pounding the city in early 1992.
"Burn their brains!" was one. "Shell them until they're on the edge of madness," was another.
But the most notorious attack on civilians was to come in July 1995, at Srebrenica, a Bosnian Muslim enclave under UN protection.
The worst atrocity in Europe since World War II occurred after Gen Mladic's forces overran the town and rounded up Muslim men and boys aged between 12 and 77.
Hours before the shooting began, the general himself was seen handing out sweets to Muslim children in the main square, even patting one on the head.
Then, over five days, at least 7,500 captives were killed, reportedly machine-gunned in groups of 10 before being buried by bulldozer in mass graves.
Later that year, the UN war crimes tribunal indicted Gen Mladic on two counts of genocide for the Sarajevo siege and the Srebrenica massacre.
After the Bosnian war, Gen Mladic returned to Belgrade, enjoying the open support and protection of the late Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic.
He could be seen visiting public places, eating in expensive restaurants and even attending football matches.
But when Milosevic was arrested in 2001, the former Bosnian Serb commander disappeared from public view.
In October 2004, former aides to the general began surrendering to the Hague war crimes tribunal as Belgrade came under intense international pressure to co-operate.
Speculation mounted that Gen Mladic would also soon be arrested when Mr Karadzic was detained in Belgrade in July 2008.
But it was not until 26 May 2011 that Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect was finally arrested by Serbian intelligence officers and war crimes investigators in the village of Lazarevo, 100km (60 miles) north-east of Belgrade.
Despite having two guns, the ex-general reportedly offered no resistance.
He was said by Serbian media to be in poor health, having difficulty moving apparently due to a series of strokes.
Some papers reported that he had been living on his own, relying on a neighbour to help him get dressed.
After the Bosnian war, Gen Mladic returned to Belgrade, enjoying the open support and protection of the late Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic.
He could be seen visiting public places, eating in expensive restaurants and even attending football matches.
But when Milosevic was arrested in 2001, the former Bosnian Serb commander disappeared from public view.
In October 2004, former aides to the general began surrendering to the Hague war crimes tribunal as Belgrade came under intense international pressure to co-operate.
Speculation mounted that Gen Mladic would also soon be arrested when Mr Karadzic was detained in Belgrade in July 2008.
But it was not until 26 May 2011 that Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect was finally arrested by Serbian intelligence officers and war crimes investigators in the village of Lazarevo, 100km (60 miles) north-east of Belgrade.
Despite having two guns, the ex-general reportedly offered no resistance.
He was said by Serbian media to be in poor health, having difficulty moving apparently due to a series of strokes.
Some papers reported that he had been living on his own, relying on a neighbour to help him get dressed.
After the Bosnian war, Gen Mladic returned to Belgrade, enjoying the open support and protection of the late Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic.
He could be seen visiting public places, eating in expensive restaurants and even attending football matches.
But when Milosevic was arrested in 2001, the former Bosnian Serb commander disappeared from public view.
In October 2004, former aides to the general began surrendering to the Hague war crimes tribunal as Belgrade came under intense international pressure to co-operate.
Speculation mounted that Gen Mladic would also soon be arrested when Mr Karadzic was detained in Belgrade in July 2008.
But it was not until 26 May 2011 that Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect was finally arrested by Serbian intelligence officers and war crimes investigators in the village of Lazarevo, 100km (60 miles) north-east of Belgrade.
Despite having two guns, the ex-general reportedly offered no resistance.
He was said by Serbian media to be in poor health, having difficulty moving apparently due to a series of strokes.
Some papers reported that he had been living on his own, relying on a neighbour to help him get dressed.
Serbia announced the arrest of former Bosnian
Serb military chief Ratko Mladic on Thursday, ending a 16-year manhunt
for the general accused of masterminding Europe’s worst massacre since
World War II.
Ratko Mladic
President Boris Tadic confirmed reports that
the 69-year-old had been detained by Serbian security forces, saying the
capture would bolster Serbia’s “moral credibility in the world”.
“Today, early in the morning, we arrested Ratko Mladic,” the president told a press conference in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
“The extradition process is under way,” he added, referring to the
process to transfer Mladic to a United Nations tribunal in The Hague.
“Today we close one chapter, a chapter in our history, which brings us
… one step closer to full reconciliation in the region.”
Mladic, the most wanted fugitive from the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), faces charges of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the Srebrenica
massacre and the bloody siege of Sarajevo during the 1992 to 1995
conflict.
His arrest follows heavy pressure from the European Union, which has
made clear that Serbia’s failure to capture Mladic was a major obstacle
to its hopes of joining the 27-nation bloc. Reacting to news of the arrest, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton
said that Mladic must now be transferred to The Hague “without delay”.
Earlier in the day, it had emerged that the special prosecutor for the
ICTY had again accused Belgrade of not doing enough to capture Mladic
and the former Croatian Serb leader, Goran Hadzic.
Political and judicial saga
Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, Mladic’s mentor,
was captured in July 2008 and he is currently on trial at the ICTY’s
headquarters in The Hague. News of the arrest first emerged on Belgrade radio station B92, which
said that a man known as Milorad Komadic, but who was in fact believed
to be Mladic, had been taken into custody.
Mladic’s capture ends a tortuous political and judicial saga since he
was first indicted by the ICTY for his leadership role in the Bosnian
war as the former Yugoslavia fell apart.
The indictment against him specifically cites the establishment of camps
and detention centres for Bosnian Muslims as part of a campaign of
ethnic cleansing, as well as the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre and the
44-month siege of Sarajevo.
At Srebrenica, which had been under nominal UN protection, 8 000 Muslim
men and boys were rounded up and massacred in Europe’s worst atrocity
since World War II.
The UN indictment says Mladic was the operational mastermind behind the
slaughter, the only episode during the bloody Bosnian war that was ruled
a genocide by the court.
The two counts of genocide — the gravest of all war crimes — focus on
an “ethnic cleansing” campaign to drive or terrorise Muslims out of
Serb-dominated parts of Bosnia.
Untouchable status
Mladic was able to evade capture for almost 15 years since his
indictment in 1995, notably thanks to a years-long lack of political
will in Belgrade and his status to many Serbs as a war hero. He lived almost openly in Belgrade until 2000 when former Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from office. The ouster of his
one-time mentor robbed Mladic of his untouchable status.
Even afterwards, though, Mladic hid under military protection, authorities in Serbia have admitted. It meant that the Nato force in Bosnia, which once had 60 000 troops at
its disposal, failed in nine years to arrest him, while its successor, a
European force of 7 000, fared no better.
In the end the most effective pressure came from Serbia’s own aspirations to join the European Union. In his press conference, Tadic stressed that the arrest had come about
as “a result of the full cooperation with the Hague war-time tribunal”.
Since the ouster of Milosevic in 2000, 42 suspects have been handed over to the UN tribunal.
Ratko Mladic has been described as "one of those lethal combinations that history thrusts up occasionally-a charismatic murderer." What drove the Bosnian Serb military commander to order Europe's deadliest massacre since World War II? Could it have been prevented? Michael Dobbs, a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum fellow, investigates.
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