Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday said that life imprisonment rendered by the UN tribunal against Mladić for war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina was appropriate, however, the premier expressed regret that the ICTY indictment against Mladić had not incorporated war crimes committed in Croatia by Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) troops under his command in the autumn of 1991 and in early 1992.
In the final Trial Judgement of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Trial Chamber on Wednesday convicted Ratko Mladić, former Commander of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. These crimes were committed by Serb forces during the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from 1992 until 1995 and Mladić was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Having in mind the gravest crimes against humanity that were the subject matter of the indictment and a joint criminal enterprise in which Mladić participated in Bosnia and Herzegovina and having in mind that the tribunal established that genocide was committed in Srebrenica, this judgement is appropriate, PM Plenković told the press in the parliament in Zagreb where he had outlined the 2018 draft budget.
Asked by the press to comment on the fact that the trial chamber did not accept the prosecution's allegations about Serbia's leadership being involved in ajoint criminal enterprise, Plenković said that unfortunately this verdict had not included that.
The Croatian PM was also sorry to see that the crimes committed by the units under Mladić's command had not been part of the ICTY indictment against that officer.
PM Plenković believes that, obviously, the extensiveness of the case was the reason why the crimes perpetrated in Croatia had not been added to the Mladić indictment before the UN tribunal in The Hague.
Source: Government of the Republic of Croatia