16 May 2012

ICTY / MLADIC

The trial of former Bosnian Serb army commander General Ratko Mladic opened todayat the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. ICTY

Posted at: May 16, 2012 11:38 am

Duration: 01:38

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: UN / MLADIC
TRT: 1.38
SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL COURT FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA (ICTY)
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 16 MAY 2012, THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS

SHOTLIST:

1. Various shots, judges entering courtroom
2. Med shot, counsel announcing opening of trial
3. Med shot, Mladic
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dermot Groome, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
"Two decades ago this past month Bosnian Serb leaders commenced an attack on their fellow citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Civilians who were targeted for no other reason than they were of an ethnicity other than Serb. Their land, their lives, their dignity attacked in a coordinated and carefully planned manner. In some locations this attack rose to the level of genocide."
5. Med shot, Mladic
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dermot Groome, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
"Four days ago marked two decades since Ratko Mladic became the commander of the main staff of the army of Republica Srpska, the VRS."
7. Wide shot, courtroom
8. Med shot, Mladic
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dermot Groome, Prosecutor, International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
"On that day he assumed the mantle of realizing through military might the criminal goals of ethnically cleansing much of Bosnia."
10. Med shot, Mladic looking at prosecutor

STORYLINE:

The trial of former Bosnian-Serb Army Commander General Ratko Mladic began today (16 May) at the International Court for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, Netherlands.

Mladic faces eleven charges, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The indictment states that Mladic committed the crimes as part of a joint criminal enterprise whose objective was to eliminate or permanently remove Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat and other non-Serb inhabitants from large areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Court's Prosecutor said that when Mladic became the commander of the Bosnian Serb Army on 12 May 1992, he "assumed the mantle of realizing through military might the criminal goals of ethnically cleansing much of Bosnia".

The court listed over 70 incidents of murder in 20 municipalities. It also alleged that Mladic's forces tortured, mistreated and physically, psychologically and sexually abused civilians confined in 58 detention facilities in 22 municipalities. He is also facing charges for the shelling and sniping during the prolonged siege of the city of Sarajevo, in which thousands of civilians were killed and wounded.