The Wheels of Justice Grind Slow, but Exceedingly Fine

The conviction of the “butcher of Srebrenica”, Ratko Mladić, should be hailed as it conveys the message that genocide perpetrators will be held liable and morally responsible for their acts and omissions

- Prof Upendra Baxi

THE saying of ancient Chinese general, military strategist, writer and philosopher Sun Tzu—“the wheels of justice grind slow, but grind fine”—is echoed many a time. But it sounds truer in the context of the Srebrenica massacre of Muslims in 1995. At least, a whole generation has passed since the Bosnian war; but if one were to count the time taken from the date of trial, the full trial only takes the period 2012-2021, while the arrest of Ratko Mladic took 16 years to fructify!

Mladic commenced the Siege of Sarajevo, a four-year blockade of the city, which resulted in its destruction and thousands of civilian casualties. On the declaration of independence by Bosnia Herzegovina from Yugoslavia, Mladic became the chief of staff of the Yugoslav army in Sarajevo and the Commander of the Main Staff of the Army of the Republika Srpska. In March 1995, the Srebrenica enclave, an UN-declared safe haven that was to be “free from any armed attack or hostile act” and was guarded by the Dutch Battalion of United Nations Protection Force came under the control of Mladic.

Nearly 40,000 Muslim refugees were forcibly exiled from the enclave, and over 8,000 Muslim men of fighting age murdered. During the short Bosnian War (1992-1995), an estimated 1,00,000 people, of which Bosnian Muslims comprise 80 percent, were killed and millions displaced and about 50,000 women raped and others tortured. These blood-curdling statistics silhouette the outlines of epic genocidal deaths, devastation and destruction.