Thursday, May 26, 2011

The arrest of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic

Robert Mackey reports:
Mr. Mladic, who was arrested in Serbia on Thursday in connection with the massacre of about 8,000 men and boys at Srebrenica in the days after the enclave for Bosnian Muslims was overrun by his forces, clearly enjoyed being filmed. As the footage of him sauntering around Srebrenica after its capture — toasting the commander of the Dutch peacekeepers he had just humiliated, pleasantly asking a young boy his age (while perhaps weighing if a 12-year-old could be considered of military age) — he appeared proud of what his forces had achieved and acted, for the cameras, almost more like a politician than a general.
The makers of a PBS documentary, “Srebrenica: A Cry From the Grave,” later used much of the footage shot by the cameras that accompanied Mr. Mladic during that week in 1995 to put together a chilling timeline of his hands-on leadership of the campaign. Here is one part of that documentary:


It was not until a decade later that video of a very different character, also filmed that week in Srebrenica, showing in graphic detail the execution of prisoners, was broadcast on Serbian television.

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