Turkey hails 'importance' of Mladic life sentence

By Cansu Dikme

ANKARA

The life sentence handed down to a former Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide is important as it proves that crimes against humanity will not go unpunished, Turkey said Wednesday.

The UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) verdict in the Ratko Mladic case “is important as it proves that the courts which have exclusive competence to deal with such cases do not allow impunity for any crime against humanity,” said Turkey’s Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Turkey hopes the verdict promotes “social peace” and “reconciliation” in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the statement said, adding:

“It will set an example to deter similar crimes from being committed in ongoing conflicts in various parts of the world.”

Mladic was jailed for life on Wednesday by UN judges after being found guilty of crimes against humanity, including genocide in the Srebrenica murders near the end of the country's brutal three-year civil war.