Mladic arrest bittersweet for Bosnian survivors
By Rachel Carbonell
Updated
Bosnian survivors continue to celebrate the arrest and impending extradition of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic after he was deemed fit to stand trial.
Mladic was interviewed by an investigative judge at the Belgrade special war crimes court and now faces extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
He is accused of orchestrating the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys from the town of Srebrenica in July 1995.
Last night hundreds of members of the Australian Bosnian Islamic Society gathered at a mosque in Deer Park, in Melbourne's west, for an annual memorial service for those who died in concentration camps during the Bosnian conflict.
Hajreta Custovic lost family in the massacre.
She is happy about Mladic's arrest, but upset it took so long, and she says many others are also to blame.
"I lost my father, I lost my grandfather, I lost my aunty, more than half of my family, males, they are all dead," she said.
"We always hoped and wanted and prayed that he would pay for what he's done. But unfortunately it's not just him, there are others who helped him too, they are with him as well."
Mina Kojic also lost her father in the Srebenica massacre. Her brothers survived because of her mother's desperate ingenuity.
"My mum, what she did, she put on a skirt and she put on a scarf on my brothers' heads so that way they would think that they are girls instead of boys. And that's how they survived," she said.
"I'm so happy, I'm thrilled, I'm really, really happy [about Mladic's arrest]. It's sort of one chapter of my life closed, that is how I see it."
One man, who wished only to be referred to as Nedzad, still finds it difficult to speak of his experience as a prisoner in a concentration camp.
"It was a terrible experience, it's hard to speak about that, but I survived," he said.
He is also happy about Mladic's arrest, but is disappointed by how long it took.
"I'm also angry because it took them 16 years to find him, [he was] maybe 80 kilometres out of Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia so, it's mixed."
The president of the Australian Council of Bosnian Organisations, Senata Softic-Telalovic, says such mixed feelings are common.
"There is three levels of feelings here: One is that everyone is obviously celebrating his arrest, there's no doubt about it," she said.
"Then the sarcasm comes in and cynicism, which is purely 100 per cent accurate. Why has it taken 16 years? This man should have been brought before justice 16 years ago.
"And then of course the third level is grief. It brings back absolutely everything.
"The next level that falls into is that now you have to relive all the crimes that were committed by him and his army.
"So it brings back the memories, it brings back the deaths, it brings back the rape camps, it brings back the concentration camps, it brings back home the genocide."
First posted
Ratko Mladić in 1993 
, otherwise known as "The Butcher of Bosnia," has been arrested after being sought for over a decade. The 69-year-old former Serbian general and war crimes suspect was arrested on May 26 by Serbian special police in , Serbia. Mladić was accused of war crimes shortly after the 1992–1995 . He was wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity, including the orchestration of a massacre of over 8000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys in .

The arrest has prompted protests from Serbian nationalists, who herald Mladić as a national hero and patriot. However, the international reaction to Mladić's capture is more positive. French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Serbia's actions, saying it is another step for Serbia on the path to joining the European Union. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt gave similar praise, saying that the Serbia's prospects of joining the EU are "brighter than ever."

Serbia's war crimes court ruled that Mladić is fit for trial, despite claims from family and supporters to the contrary. Ratko Mladić's son Darko claims that his father is too weak to face extradition to The Hague for trial. Mladić could face extradition within a matter of days.


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cs:Srbové chytili Mladiće, půjde před tribunál v Haagu
de:Serbien: Mutmaßlicher Kriegsverbrecher Ratko Mladić verhaftet
fr:Serbie : Ratko Mladić arrêté pour crimes contre l'humanité
ru:Арестован Ратко Младич
sr:Ухапшен Ратко Младић