Ratko Mladić dies at 85; Škabrnja veterans say crimes must not be forgotten

Convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić has died at the age of 85.

The former Bosnian Serb military commander died in the detention unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Mladić was sentenced to life in prison for the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica and other war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, he was not convicted for the destruction of Kijevo in Šibenik-Knin County or the massacre of civilians in Škabrnja.

Veterans who defended Škabrnja during the Homeland War said they could not forgive Mladić for the crimes committed there.

“Divine justice has been served. Human justice failed when it came to Škabrnja and Ratko Mladić, but God has the final say, and Mladić will be judged by God for all those atrocities. I knew Ratko Mladić even before the war, when I served in the former Yugoslav army. When he returned from Macedonia, he was arrogant, cocky and an extreme Chetnik,” said Marko Miljanić, the Croatian wartime commander in Škabrnja.

“I am sorry he was not convicted of the war crimes he and his forces committed in Škabrnja. We all know very well what happened. It is something that cannot be forgiven. He may be dead, but I cannot forgive him. I hope that atrocities like these never happen again to anyone, anywhere,” said Zoran Gurlica, president of the Škabrnja Homeland War Volunteers Association.