A U.N. “safe haven” for Muslim refugees during Bosnia’s war, Srebrenica wound up overrun by Serbian forces under Ratko Mladic.
In a rampage that lasted a week, and led to the worst civilian carnage since World War II, the Serbs separated the men and boys, forced them to strip, killed them and bulldozed their bodies into mass graves.
“Children had their throats slit before their mothers’ eyes,” said Fouad Riad, an Egyptian judge.
Just hours before the massacre, Ratko Mladic handed out candy to Muslim children rounded up at the town’s square and consoled them that all would be fine — even patting one child on the head. That sinister image is forever imprinted in the minds of Srebrenica survivors.
Until about five years ago, Mladic regularly ventured into downtown Belgrade, dining at gourmet restaurants and attending soccer matches.
After a few halfhearted attempts by Serbian authorities to close in on him, he moved underground.
The problem has always been the same: Mladic is still widely hailed at home as a patriot.
Tough young men stand on street corners across Serbia, selling black T-shirts that bear Mladic’s image and the words: “Serbian Hero!”
