LOC16:42
13:42 GMT
BRUSSELS, Nov 22 (KUNA) -- The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Serge Brammertz, said Tuesday that Ratko Mladic, the ex-Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, was a key participant in four joint criminal enterprises.
First, Mladic was convicted for commanding violent ethnic cleansing campaigns across Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.
"The goal was to permanently remove Bosnian Croats and Muslims through widespread and systematic crimes," he said in a press statement after Mladic was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes by the Tribunal at the Hague earlier today.
Second, Mladic was convicted for commanding a campaign of crimes during the Siege of Sarajevo.
Third, he was convicted for the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.
"The goal was to eliminate the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica. Mladic used the forces under his command to execute several thousand men and boys.
"He further used these forces to forcibly expel 25,000 terrified women, children and elderly from their homes," noted the chief prosecutor.
Finally, Mladic was convicted for using forces under his command to take UN peacekeepers as hostages.
The goal was to deter NATO from launching airstrikes. Hundreds of peacekeepers were seized, detained, assaulted and used as human shields, he added. (pickup previous)
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