July 9 (Reuters) – The trial of Bosnian Serb army commander
Ratko Mladic resumed on Monday at the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Here is a look at the charges he faces:
OVERVIEW:
Mladic faces 11 charges – including genocide, murder, acts
of terror and crimes against humanity – dating back to his time
commanding the Bosnian Serb army during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
He is accused of orchestrating the week-long massacre of
8,000 unarmed Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and also the
43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in which more
than 10,000 people were killed by snipers, machine guns and
heavy artillery.
Mladic denies all the charges.
SPECIFIC CHARGES:
* COUNT 1: – Mladic committed, together with others,
planned, instigated, ordered and aided genocide against Bosnian
Muslims and Bosnian Croats.
* COUNT 2: – Mladic committed, together with others,
planned, instigated, ordered and aided genocide against Bosnian
Muslim national ethnic groups. Additionally Mladic knew that
genocide was about to be or had been committed by his
subordinates. He participated in a joint criminal enterprise to
eliminate the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica by killing more than
7,000 men and boys of Srebrenica and forcibly removing the
women, young children and some elderly.
– Counts 1-2 constitute genocide.
* COUNT 3: – Committed, with others and planned, instigated,
ordered, and aided persecutions on political or religious
grounds against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats.
– Count 3 constitutes a crime against humanity.
* COUNTS 4-6: – Mladic committed or planned or helped the
extermination and murder of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats
in municipalities – the extermination and murder of Bosnian
Muslims in Srebrenica and the civilian population of Sarajevo.
– Counts 4 and 5 constitute crimes against humanity, count
6, violation of laws or customs of war.
* COUNTS 7-8: – Mladic planned, instigated, ordered,
committed and helped the forcible transfer and deportation of
Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats or other non-Serbs from the
municipalities and from Srebrenica. These were carried out
between may 12, 1992 and November 30, 1995.
– Counts 7 and 8 constitute crimes against humanity.
COUNTS 9-10: – Mladic instigated, ordered, committed and
helped the crimes of terror and unlawful attacks on civilians.
He also took part in a joint criminal enterprise to carry out a
campaign of sniping and shelling against the civilian population
of Sarajevo between April 1992 and November 1995, to spread
terror among the civilian population.
– Counts 9 and 10 constitute violations of the laws or
customs of war.
COUNT 11: – He planned, instigated, ordered, committed and
abetted the taking of U.N. military observers and peacekeepers
as hostages.
– Forces under Mladic’s control detained more than 200 U.N.
peacekeepers and military observers and used them as human
shields in various strategic locations to prevent NATO from
conducting air strikes against Bosnian Serb military targets.
– Threats were issued to the U.N., NATO and others that
further NATO attacks would result in the injury, death, or
continued detention of the detainees. Some detainees were
assaulted before being released in June 1995.
– Count 11 constitutes violations of the laws or customs of
war.
Sources: Reuters/www.icty.org/http://www.icty.org/x/cases/mladic/ind/en/mla-ai021010e.pdf
(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
