It is a good day for justice and the beginning of a new chapter in the story of the Balkans. Sixteen years after the end of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ratko Mladic, one of the key figures involved in the wartime atrocities against Bosnian Muslims and Croats has finally been caught. It took a long time, but for the relatives of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre, these 16 years are a mere blink of an eye.
The trauma of Srebrenica, where more than 8,000 men were murdered, runs deep. General Ratko Mladic is accused of these crimes and the three-and-a-half year long siege of Sarajevo. With his capture and the legal process to determine his guilt that will now begin, victims' relatives can finally feel satisfaction.
What are the reasons why the alleged war criminal was captured after so many years in hiding? Unofficially, it has long been common knowledge that the Serbian authorities knew of his whereabouts. The word from Sarajevo is that the government in Belgrade decided to take him into custody because the pressure from Brussels was growing ever stronger. Indeed, cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is an important condition for Serbia's EU accession.
Opinion: Mladic arrest opens new chapter for the Balkans | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 26.05.2011
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