Justice Beyond Mladić: Conviction Stats From The Former Yugoslavia Wars
Ratko Mladić has died in prison. But how many other war criminals were actually convicted, from those wars in the Balkans?
By Geno Teofilo
8/31/20263 min read
Ratko Mladić, the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, has died. If you’re a humanitarian old enough to remember the terrible 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia, you’ll recall that he lead one of the last massacres of the 20th century, in Srebenica. He was eventually convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes for the death and destruction that he wrought in Bosnia. But that justice was delayed. After the war ended in 1995, he later fled, and hid for 16 years. He was finally arrested in Serbia in 2011, living under a fake name. After his conviction in 2017, he spent his remaining years in a prison in The Hague, where he died last week.
Mladić was one the most infamous war criminals of the 90’s Balkan wars, along with Radovan Karadzic, Slobodan Milošević, Franjo Tuđman, and others. While these were the ‘big fish’ who eventually faced justice, (or didn’t), what were the overall numbers for the total number of war crimes cases, and the crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia?
I was surprised when I looked up the statistics, and the number of cases resolved (and not). So before I give you the stats on those tried for war crimes, and crimes against humanity from those years, here’s what happened to those other 3 who were most well known to the outside world.
· Radovan Karadzic – the former President of Republika Srpska from 1992–1996, he helped spark the war, and was a key mastermind of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War. In 1995 he was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Like Ratko he hid for years, until he was arrested in Belgrade in 2008. His trial took over 5 years. He was convicted of genocide, persecution, extermination, deportation, and other crimes. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He appealed in 2019, only to receive a worse sentence: life in prison. Today he’s in prison in the United Kingdom.
· Slobodan Milošević – he was President of Serbia from 1989-1997, and though he tried to forcefully keep territories together through violence and massive human rights violations, he ultimately failed. The ICTY indicted him in 1999 for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was finally arrested in Belgrade in 2001, and extradited to The Hague that year. His trial began in 2002, and his case dragged into another long trial. He died in prison in 2006, before the trial ended. His was the first trial in history, against a sitting head of state for war crimes.
· Franjo Tuđman – the President of Croatia from 1990-1999, he is still celebrated today within Croatia for leading the country to independence during the wars, but meanwhile the military under him also committed war crimes. Outside the country, he’s also known for supporting forced expulsions of Bosniak Muslims from regions in Bosnia (caught on tape), and he later attempted to cover up war crimes of some of his generals. The ICTY was investigating Tudman, and probably would have indicted him, but he died of cancer in 1999.
(*NOTE* - while the above were Serbian or Croatian, and among the most well known for those convicted, or accused of war crimes, most of the other ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia also had multiple people convicted of war crimes.)
While the government chiefs were the well known war crimes cases, there were thousands of other cases that were prosecuted, and received little news pickup in the outside world. So here are the overall totals, for all of the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
It’s notable that some of the above cases were tried, with convictions in absentia. So the accused was never arrested, or present in the courtroom for the proceedings. This includes over 500 convicted in absentia in Croatia alone. Most of those convicted in absentia probably will not serve prison time, as they are unlikely to be arrested and extradited by the governments that they fought for, where they currently live.
With these convictions in absentia, this means that over 50% of those convicted, were not physically brought to justice at the time. A small number convicted in absentia, and later brought to justice. But overall, out of approximately 1,200 people charged as having been war criminals, less than 550 of them, less than 46%, were actually sent to prison.
Under the right of Universal Jurisdiction, other European countries have tried and convicted dozens of war criminals from the former Yugoslavia wars, that have been found and arrested within their borders. Those with the most cases have been Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands.
I was surprised to learn, that some cases and trials are ongoing to this day. Courts in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia continue to try these cases into the present.
While justice has been delayed, more arrests and prosecutions are likely in the future.