War Criminal, Plain and Simple

Ratko Mladic

Less than a week after I came back from Bosnia, it was announced that Serbia had captured one of the most wanted war criminals from the Bosnian War, Ratko Mladic. This event made me even happier that I had gone to Bosnia, because it allowed me to see and hear for myself the destruction and pain that this man had helped to create.

After his arrest, Serbian ultra-nationalists in both Serbia and Bosnia called for his release because he was a “hero.” Whenever I heard people saying that, I couldn’t help but be reminded of one of the stories my hostel owner, Jasmina, had told me about the Siege of Sarajevo. She remembered constantly having to duck and run across the streets whenever she went outside because there were always Serbian snipers who would shoot anyone that they saw. She told me, “Now I understand in war soldiers kill soldiers, and that is fine, but I cannot understand how someone can shoot an unarmed woman or child. To me, you have to be crazy or something to do that.”

One of the times I was walking through Sarajevo, I came across this monument in a park. The monument consisted of a fountain and two twisted pieces of glass in the middle. Next to the fountain, were revolving metal cones with the names of birth and death dates of people. I didn’t really look too hard at the names because honestly, when you see a bunch of names, especially if you cannot even pronounce some of them, they all kind of glaze together. But as I continued walking, I saw a sign pointing in the direction that I had just come from and it said in Bosnian and English, “Monument to Murdered Children.”

1500 children died during the Siege of Sarajevo, not to mention the thousands more who were killed in other cities and towns across Bosnia. Anyone who thinks that a man who led the army that deliberately killed most of these children is a hero I think is just as crazy as the ones who actually pulled the trigger.

Monument to Murdered Children

The names of the children killed in the Siege of Sarajevo