A guilty verdict handed down Wednesday on former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic is a "milestone" for international justice, the chief Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor said.
"Today's judgement is a milestone in the tribunal's history and for international justice. Mladic was one of the first persons to be indicted by this office and the last to be convicted," chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz told reporters.
The life sentence handed down on Mladic, found guilty of 10 charges including genocide in Srebrenica, "vindicated" the UN Security Council's decision in 1993 to set up the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), he said.
The UN had sought "to secure peace through justice by holding accountable the most senior leaders responsible for these crimes" during the 1990s Balkans conflict.
Brammertz also dismissed any claims that "this judgement is a verdict against the Serbian people. My office rejects that claim in the strongest terms."
"Mladic's guilt is his and is alone," he said.
"Others think Mladic is a hero, this judgement demonstrates that nothing could be further from the truth," Brammertz insisted.
"Mladic will be remembered by history for the many communities and lives he destroyed," he said.
"The true heroes are the victims,and survivors who never gave up in their quest for justice."
The ICTY will close its doors on December 31 with guilty verdicts against Mladic, and his political counterpart Radovan Karadzic who was sentenced last year to 40 yeas on similar charges.
Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006 during his trial without a verdict being reached.
