Bosnian women react after Ratko Mladic's sentence

Family members who lost loved ones in the Srebrenica massacre said they could not find a suitable sentence for former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, who was sentenced to life in prison on charges of genocide in the Bosnian War, but added that justice was imposed.

Vasva Smajlovic 74, who lost her husband and son-in-law in the Srebrenica massacre, said no sentence for Mladic would ease her pain.

She said amid tears, as she followed the direct broadcast of the decision to sentence Malldiqi, that she lost more than 50 members of the extended family in the massacre.

Whatever decisions are made, our suffering remains the same. I don't know if my life sentence would make me feel better”, Vasva said.

But her sister-in-law said that with this decision, justice was served.

Bida Smajlovovic, who last saw her husband in July 1995 while running through the woods while trying to leave Srebrenica, said there is nothing that can compensate for her pain. Her husband's remains were later found in a mass grave and buried in 2005.

The missing “will not return. Mladic would feel nothing for any punishment. He doesn't feel our pain. But at least justice was put in place”, she says.

The men and family members of Bosnian women were killed when Bosnian Serb forces, under the command of General Mladic, took control of the Srebrenica region under UN protection on 11 July 1995.

They separated women from men and slaughtered some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in just a few days.

This was the largest massacre in Europe after World War II.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found Ratko Mladic guilty of 10 counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the war regulation among them for genocide in Srebrenica.

He was acquitted of genocide charges in six other districts.

But as Muslim women followed the broadcast of the session for the sentencing of Ratko Mladic from their homes and from the memorial centre for the victims of the massacre at Potocar, in Srebrenica and in the town near Bratunac, pictures of Malldiqi and several banners that read: “You are our hero<1> were seen.

In Srebrenica, the questioned Serbs refused to comment on the sentence.

Bosnian Serbs see Ratko Mladic as their hero and defender.

Deep publicisation between them and Bosnian Muslim neighbours over the topic of war shows that the process of reconciliation in Bosnia has been too slow. /voa/