THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Former Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, once dubbed “The Butcher of Bosnia,” returned to a UN court Monday as his trial for genocide and war crimes in the 1990s conflict nears an end.
More than four years after Mladic’s trial opened at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, prosecutors began three days of closing arguments seeking to dismiss claims he was not responsible for some of the worst bloodshed in Europe since World War II.
Prosecutors say Mladic was in charge and took credit for a plan which “radically altered the demographic picture of the portions of Bosnia claimed by the Bosnian Serbs.”
“What happened in municipality after municipality was not an unintended effect of the military campaign, but its very purpose,” prosecutor Alan Tieger told the court.
“Ethnic cleansing does not appear to be the consequence of the military campaign, but its goal.”
Mladic, 74, has denied 11 charges including two of genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the bloody 1992-95 Bosnian conflict in which more than 100,000 people died and 2.2 million others were left homeless.
Dressed in a grey suit and a blue and white tie, Mladic appeared somber Monday as the hearings opened. He stared for a long time at the journalists and public watching from the gallery, before turning to read his papers.
Mladic, the brutish military commander of Serb forces, came to symbolize a barbaric plan to rid multi-ethnic Bosnia of Croats and Muslims, fueled by the desire to establish an “ethnically pure” Greater Serbia.
He is notably accused of being behind the punishing 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, which claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in a relentless campaign of shelling and sniping.
Mladic is also on trial over his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys, who were rounded up and shot when his forces overran Dutch UN peacekeepers in the enclave.
Tieger said Mladic had sought to make the lives of Bosnian Muslims there “unbearable.”
The defense, which has repeatedly sought to have the case thrown out, will start its closing arguments on Friday. A last-minute bid on Monday to have the hearings postponed was dismissed by the three judges.
The defense has maintained that Mladic and his forces were acting in self-defense to protect against attacks by Bosnian Muslim forces, saying he is the victim of a “political” trial.
But Tieger denounced false “defense attempts to transform Mladic into a benign but ineffective officer... who was less important than the core commanders.”
The prosecution showed a video of a discussion among Serb military commanders which Tieger said proved “who was in charge, who called the shots,” arguing that Mladic was now trying to “pass off responsibility for what he once bragged about.”
Families of the victims are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the case but a verdict is not expected until 2017.
It is the last case from the former Yugoslavia being heard before the ICTY which was set up before the conflict ended to try perpetrators of atrocities.
Munira Subasic, who heads the Mothers of Srebrenica group, was attending the hearing on Monday on what would have been the 42nd birthday of her son who was killed in the genocide in 1995.
Subasic has said it was unfortunate that justice had been so long coming.
“Those who still believe (Radovan) Karadzic and Mladic are heroes would perhaps have thought differently today if they had been sentenced very quickly after the war,” she told AFP recently.
Karadzic, sentenced to 40 years in March, and Mladic remain the highest-profile actors from the wars to see their trials completed after former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died in his UN detention cell in 2006.
Indicted in July 1995, Mladic evaded capture for some 16 years. Finally captured in May 2011, he was transferred to a UN detention center in The Hague where he remains behind bars.
’Butcher of Bosnia’ Mladic back in court as trial nears end
’Butcher of Bosnia’ Mladic back in court as trial nears end
In rare overlap, Chinese Muslims observe Ramadan with Lunar New Year
- Lunar New Year started on Feb. 17 and is celebrated for another two weeks
- Chinese Indonesians make up about 3 percent of the Indonesian population
JAKARTA: Every year, on the first day of Lunar New Year, Febriani visits relatives and gathers for a feast with her Chinese Muslim family, part of a long-standing tradition honoring their ethnic heritage.
But this year, as Thursday marks the beginning of Ramadan, she is celebrating two important occasions within the same week, in a rare overlap that last took place in 1995.
“I’m very happy and grateful that Lunar New Year and Ramadan are celebrated so closely. I observe both every year, so it’s truly special,” she told Arab News.
Widely observed across Asia, the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year festival is believed to date back to the 14th century B.C., to the times of the Shang Dynasty, China’s earliest ruling dynasty, when people celebrated good harvests.
In 2026, it started on Feb. 17 and is celebrated for another two weeks. For many, celebrations typically involve elaborate feasts, giving children pocket money in red envelopes, and watching dragon dance parades.
In Indonesia, Chinese-descent citizens make up an estimated 3 percent of the country’s Muslim-majority population of more than 280 million. While most are either Buddhists or Christians, a small minority professes Islam.
For 25-year-old Febriani, both Lunar New Year and Ramadan are equally meaningful.
“The two celebrations teach us to strengthen bonds, to share with one another, and to become closer to family,” she said.
“They are both important to me because they happen only once every year and they’re always an occasion to gather with the extended family. It is also a chance to self-reflect and strengthen relationships with your loved ones.”
For Naga Kunadi, whose family lives in Central Java’s Cepu district, Chinese New Year is all about embracing his ethnic identity.
Earlier in the week, his family was busy preparing for the new year’s feast, which was a fusion of Chinese and Indonesian dishes, such as claypot tofu, meatball soup and shumai, or steamed dumplings.
“To celebrate Chinese New Year, we prepared halal Chinese food at home. It’s also a way to introduce to my children the traditions from our Chinese side, but there’s a bit of a fusion because my wife is Javanese,” Kunadi told Arab News.
Kunadi, an Islamic teacher at the Lautze Mosque in Jakarta, sees both Chinese New Year and Ramadan as opportunities to teach important life values for his two children.
Upholding Chinese New Year traditions with his family is for him a way of preserving his ethnic heritage.
“We want to preserve cultural values as long as it does not clash with our religion,” he said.
“If we leave our culture behind, we might lose our identity, so this is something I want to teach my children.”
The fasting month of Ramadan, on the other hand, gives him a chance to teach and practice honesty.
“I want to focus on the religious and moral aspects during the holy month of Ramadan, when we practice honesty on a personal level,” Kunadi said.
“There’s always an opportunity to eat or snack in secret without anybody knowing, but we train ourselves not to do that. For me, Ramadan is a time for everyone to put honesty into practice, including myself and my children.”
