DODIK: HAGUE MECHANISM’S DECISION ON MLADIĆ INHUMANE BUT NOT UNEXPECTED

ČELINAC, AUGUST 22 /SRNA/ — President Milorad Dodik described as inhumane the decision by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals to once again reject a request for General Ratko Mladić to be provisionally released for medical treatment, but said the decision was not unexpected given how similar cases involving Serbian detainees had been handled.

"They have no empathy whatsoever for the sick or for those who need help. General Mladić deserves adequate medical care," Dodik told reporters in Čelinac.

He reminded of the cases of Slobodan Milošević, Radoslav Brđanin and others who were released from detention to return home only when they had just a few days left to live.

"That is inhumane and, of course, it is a blow to every human being. Regardless of what anyone says or what a court rules, people must be treated humanely and every person must have access to adequate medical care," Dodik said.

He said it was obvious that the Hague Tribunal had been a court only for Serbs.

"They experimented on us there in various ways, invented collective responsibility and much more. I do not shy away from saying that anyone who committed a crime should be held accountable, but being held responsible for a political policy is something that had not happened since the Nuremberg trials," Dodik said.

He stressed that Serbian national politics was responsible and had not aimed to commit any crime.

"But war is war. War was a challenge in which various things happened," Dodik said, adding that, alongside Muslims, Serbs and Croats had also suffered casualties.

Dodik said that General Mladić was a man of pride who had never given up.

"He is a man who does not regret what he was, and he was a leader of the Serb people during difficult times when it was necessary to stand at the head of the people and defend their freedom. Without that struggle, Republika Srpska would not exist, and Serbs would have been marginalized,” Dodik said.

Dodik said that it was enough to look at how Muslims treat Serbs to understand the situation.

"Republika Srpska is a justified project. It was worth fighting for. What belongs to Republika Srpska is predominantly Serb national territory," Dodik said.

The Hague Mechanism yesterday rejected a request for General Ratko Mladić to be released for medical treatment in Serbia.

The general's son, Darko Mladić, told SRNA that two judges had supported his father’s release this time, but that Mechanism President Graciela Gatti Santana had rejected their arguments, saying it had not been demonstrated that he would receive better care in Serbia than in the Netherlands.

He said that staff at the detention hospital had stopped measuring his father's blood pressure and performing ECGs and had discontinued his diabetes medication.