Bosnian Serb convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic dies - Al Jazeera
Source: Al Jazeera English
Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general widely known as the 'butcher of Bosnia', has died at the age of 84. He passed away while hospitalised at a United Nations prison facility in The Hague, Netherlands. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals confirmed his death on Thursday and announced that a full inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death had been ordered by presiding judge Graciela Gatti Santana.
Mladic had been serving a life sentence following his 2017 conviction for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during the devastating Bosnian War of 1992 to 1995. He was found guilty of orchestrating the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, in which at least 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were systematically killed in a UN-designated safe zone — the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.
During the Bosnian War, Mladic commanded the Bosnian Serb Army and oversaw a brutal siege of the capital Sarajevo that lasted for years, killing approximately 10,000 civilians through relentless artillery bombardment. His forces also established detention camps and conducted widespread ethnic cleansing — the forcible expulsion of Bosniaks, Croats, and other non-Serbs from territories they sought to incorporate into a Greater Serbia.
The bodies of those slaughtered at Srebrenica were bulldozed into mass graves, and some remains were later relocated to remote mountain sites in a deliberate effort to conceal evidence of the killings. The UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia determined that Mladic, along with the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, formed part of a criminal conspiracy to implement this ethnic cleansing campaign.
Mladic remained defiant throughout his legal proceedings. At a 2014 ICTY hearing he declared, 'I do not recognise this court,' and upon receiving his life sentence in 2017, he shouted his denials before being removed from the courtroom. Former UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein described him as 'the epitome of evil.' His death marks the end of a figure whose actions left an indelible scar on European history and the lives of millions.
Japanese translation
ボスニア・セルビア人の元将軍で「ボスニアの屠殺者」と呼ばれたラトコ・ムラジッチが84歳で死亡した。オランダ・ハーグの国連拘置所付属病院で息を引き取り、国際残余メカニズム刑事裁判所が木曜日に死亡を確認した。グラシエラ・ガッティ・サンタナ裁判官は死亡の経緯について全面的な調査を命じた。
ムラジッチは1992年から1995年のボスニア紛争中に行われた集団虐殺、戦争犯罪、人道に対する罪により2017年に終身刑の判決を受けていた。1995年7月のスレブレニツァ虐殺を指揮したとして有罪とされ、少なくとも8,000人のボシュニャク人男性が殺害されたこの事件は、第二次世界大戦以降のヨーロッパ最悪の残虐行為とされている。
紛争中、ムラジッチはボスニア・セルビア人軍を指揮し、首都サラエボを数年間にわたって包囲した。絶え間ない砲撃により約1万人の民間人が命を落とした。さらに収容所を設置し、ボシュニャク人やクロアチア人などの非セルビア人を領土から強制的に追放する民族浄化を組織的に実行した。
スレブレニツァで殺害された犠牲者の遺体はブルドーザーで集団墓地に埋められ、一部は証拠隠滅のため山中の人里離れた場所に移された。旧ユーゴスラビア国際刑事裁判所は、ムラジッチが故セルビア大統領スロボダン・ミロシェビッチやボスニア・セルビア人の政治指導者ラドバン・カラジッチとともに民族浄化計画を実行する共謀に加わったと認定した。
ムラジッチは法廷でも最後まで反抗的な態度を崩さなかった。2014年の公判で「この法廷を認めない」と宣言し、2017年の終身刑判決の際には怒鳴り声をあげながら退廷させられた。元国連人権高等弁務官のゼイド・ラアド・フセインは彼を「悪の権化」と評した。彼の死は、欧州の歴史に消えない傷跡を残した人物の時代の終わりを告げるものだ。
Key vocabulary
- orchestrateverb
To plan and direct a complex event or series of events, especially in a secretive or manipulative way.
和訳: （策略的に）組織する・画策する
The investigation revealed that a senior official had orchestrated the cover-up over several years.
- atrocitynoun
An extremely wicked or cruel act, especially one involving physical violence or injury on a large scale.
和訳: 残虐行為・蛮行
International organizations called for an immediate response to the atrocities being committed against civilians.
- ethnic cleansingphrase
The mass expulsion or killing of members of one ethnic or religious group in an area by those of another, aiming to create an ethnically homogeneous territory.
和訳: 民族浄化
The tribunal found overwhelming evidence of ethnic cleansing carried out against minority communities in the region.
- defiantadjective
Boldly resistant or challenging; refusing to obey or accept authority.
和訳: 反抗的な・屈しない
The defendant remained defiant throughout the trial, refusing to acknowledge the court's legitimacy.
