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Politics

Helsinki Commission Member Alcee Hastings Cheers Mladic Verdict

November 28, 2017 - 11:15am
Alcee Hastings, Ratko Mladic and Chris Smith
Alcee Hastings, Ratko Mladic and Chris Smith

With Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague last week, the Florida congressman who leads House Democrats on the  Helsinki Commission applauded the decision. 

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., is the top House Democrat on the which the U.S. entered into under then President Gerald Ford in 1975. Covering more than 30 countries, the Helsinki Accords cover several fronts including territorial frontiers, sovereignty and human rights. 

More than two decades after he was indicted, Mladic, who was arrested in 2011, was found guilty last week of war crimes and genocide, including leading the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica and other actions in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. While he received a life sentence, Mladic is expected to appeal. 

Hastings weighed in after the verdict. 

“I welcome today’s judgment by the international tribunal against Ratko Mladic,” Hastings said. “The absolutely monstrous nature of the crimes he was found guilty of committing – war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide – could not be ignored. Although it took a long time and a lot of effort, justice has, at long last, been served.
 
“My thoughts are now with the surviving victims,” Hastings continued. “Nothing can provide complete closure for the tremendous wrongs that have been committed against them and the losses they experienced, individually and as a people. Justice is more often too slow and far less than complete than it should be. These unfortunate realities are not unique to Bosnia and Herzegovina.  
 
“However, a big step has been taken today,” Hastings insisted. “Those that have suffered from Ratko Mladic’s vicious acts know that he will pay a price for the crimes he committed. They can further the cause of justice now by relegating him to history, by moving forward with their lives and those of their children and grandchildren, and by learning from – rather than repeating – the wrongs that come with hate. As they do, I want Mladic’s victims also to remember that they are not alone; the people of the United States and many other countries want them to persevere.”  

Hastings wasn’t the only member of the Helsinki Commission to cheer the verdict. U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, the chairman of the House Global Human Rights Subcommittee and a co-chairman of the Helsinki Commission, also backed the decision. 

“This should be lesson to all those committing genocide and war crimes today—there is no statute of limitations on these crimes and we will document your crimes, hunt you down and bring you to justice. Accountability is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’,” Smith said.

“While we cannot restore the many thousands of lives Mladic snuffed out in the Srebrenica genocide, and in war crimes that were committed under his watch during the Bosnian conflict, we hope this verdict will give some closure to their families and friends.”

Back in the early 1990s, Smith saw first hand  Serbian attacks on Croatia, in which Mladic participated. “Mladic specialized in attacks on defenseless civilians, and left a trail of misery through Bosnia and Croatia,” Smith said.

The New Jersey Republican returned to Croatia last week and was there when the verdict was announced. 

“Just this morning I met in Croatia with Fr. Branimir Kosec, an extraordinarily courageous Croatian priest who, during the siege of Vukovar in 1991, refused to flee the city in order to minister to his remaining parishioners from his bombed-out church. He is an amazing man of God,” Smith said. “When Vukovar fell Fr. Branimir was taken prisoner and severely tortured—yet in him today I saw only a spirit of resolute faith and love—then as now.”

Comments

Takes a "violator of law" to recognize a "violator of law" ! ! !

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