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2011 Voices of Courage Honoree Publishes Piece in Guardian on Ratko Mladic's War Crimes Trial

One of our 2011 Voices of Courage honorees, Zrinka Bralo, published a blog on the Guardian website sharing reflections on the trial of former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic at the Hague war crimes tribunal. Zrinka fled Sarajevo when the city was under siege in the early '90s. Read her thoughts on the trauma she faced and how important it is to see Mladic finally brought to justice.

Ratko Mladic's Trial Won't Heal Our Scars But It Will Show What a Monster He Is

I still remember clearly the day I learned who Ratko Mladic was. It was 29 May 1992. The night before, my home town of Sarajevo had come under the heaviest artillery fire we had seen in the 52 days since the war began. We spent our nights hiding with our neighbours in the inner corridors of our apartment building, trying to decipher where the shells were landing. We all knew the sound of thunder in the distance meant it was only a matter of minutes before it was our turn. The distant sound of a shell hitting a different target provided no relief, because every shell that landed could have killed someone I knew and loved. Although it was still relatively early in the siege of Sarajevo, we already knew how and when to run for the shelter and across sniper alleys, and we also knew that it did not mean a thing that we lived just five minutes from the United Nations protection force's headquarters.

Read the full piece.