Trial of 'Butcher of Bosnia' nears end

Former Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, once dubbed "The Butcher of Bosnia", returned to a UN court yesterday as his trial for genocide and war crimes in the 1990s conflict nears an end.

More than four years after Mladic's trial opened at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, prosecutors began three days of closing arguments seeking to dismiss claims he was not responsible for some of the worst bloodshed in Europe since World War II.

Prosecutors say Mladic was in charge and took credit for a plan which "radically altered the demographic picture of the portions of Bosnia claimed by the Bosnian Serbs."

"What happened in municipality after municipality was not an unintended effect of the military campaign, but its very purpose," prosecutor Alan Tieger told the court.

"Ethnic cleansing does not appear to be the consequence of the military campaign, but its goal."

Mladic, 74, has denied 11 charges including two of genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the bloody 1992-95 Bosnian conflict in which more than 100,000 people died and 2.2 million others were left homeless.