UN Prosecutor Welcomes 'Long Overdue' Mladic Arrest

Published December 04, 2015

July 12, 1995: Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic pats a young Muslim boy on the head as he assures residents of Srebrenica they would be safe, after his arrival in Srebrenica, Bosnia. Gen. Ratko Mladic, the brutal Bosnian Serb general suspected of leading the bloody massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, was arrested in an early morning raid Thursday May 26, 2011 in Serbia after more than a decade hiding from genocide charges, the country's president said. (AP)

The chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has hailed the arrest of fugitive genocide suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic as an important day for victims of atrocities in Bosnia and for international justice.

Serge Brammertz says that justice for victims of Mladic's alleged crimes in Bosnia "is long overdue."

Brammertz says in a statement Thursday that the victims "endured unimaginable horrors -- including the genocide in Srebrenica."

He added that the former Bosnian Serb military chief's arrest underscores that war crimes suspects "can no longer count on impunity."

Mladic, Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect, was arrested Thursday in Serbia after years in hiding, the country's president Boris Tadic announced.