Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, on the Arrest of Ratko Mladic

Susan E. Rice
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations 
U.S. Mission to the United Nations 

New York, NY

May 26, 2011

 

The arrest today of Ratko Mladic is a victory for all people of conscience. The evidence of Mladic's deliberate cruelty and appalling disrespect for the rules of war and basic standards of decency is overpowering, and we hope he will swiftly receive justice. We commend the Government of Serbia for its action today, and we hope that this arrest can support reconciliation efforts all across the region. Even as we urge a full reckoning for Mladic, we mourn anew for those murdered at Srebrenica and for all the victims of the genocide unleashed by the regime that he served. We remember them, and we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of a world that can muster the will to halt mass atrocities before they occur. We also recommit ourselves to the work of international justice and ensuring that those who perpetrate these grave crimes meet their fate in a courtroom. We look forward to the day when Goran Hadzic joins Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic in The Hague. Today, with this opportunity to bring a measure of justice for some of the worst cruelties of recent memory, we have both a responsibility to remember and a responsibility to protect.

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