Mladic arrest 'met with relief' by victims, says survivor

Relief: Seida Saric helps to run a charity which rebuilds women's lives
Rob Parsons12 April 2012

A Bosnian woman who helps survivors of atrocities carried out by Ratko Mladic's forces in the former Yugoslavia today said his arrest was a "symbol of justice".

Seida Saric lost relatives and friends when she lived in Sarajevo during the siege of the city by Mladic's Serbian troops between 1992 and 1996 in which 10,000 people died or went missing.

The 41-year-old, is now director of the Bosnia and Herzegovina chapter of Women for Women International, a London-based charity which helps women traumatised by war rebuild their lives.

She said the appearance of the Bosnian Serb general in The Hague to face charges of orchestrating the siege and the Srebrenica massacre has been met with relief by victims.

She said: "There's no doubt that it's extremely important for all of us that he has been arrested and handed over to the Hague. It's a small symbol of justice, but it's significant.

"It's unbelievable what Mladic did. It was ordered, it wasn't something that happened by accident, or was carried out by people who were out of control. It was planned and he knew exactly what he was doing.

"I feel a kind of sadness because it has reminded us all what happened and it's difficult to go over what's happened again."

Ms Saric runs a credit programme which has provided loans to 27,000 women. It also offers a one year programme of education, training, and counselling to help war victims rebuild their lives.

She was in London this weekend to speak at Banking on Women, a conference bringing together researchers and financial institutions to discuss women, banking and micro-finance.

To donate to Women for Women call 0207 922 7765 or visit www.womenforwomen.org

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in