The Chief Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), Serge Brammertz, said on Tuesday that it was "exceptionally important" that Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic was found guilty of war crimes and handed down a final verdict of life in prison.

In a statement on the IRMCT website published after Mladić’s verdict was announced, Brammertz said that the time had come “to accept the truth.”

“Mladic ranks among the most notorious war criminals in modern history. He intentionally used his military command to attack, kill, torture, rape and expel innocent civilians for no reason other than their ethnicity and religion.

“He inflamed ethnic hatred and lied to those he purported to defend in order to justify his crimes. Given the power of life or death over thousands of innocent men and boys in Srebrenica, he ordered their total elimination and committed genocide.

“Mladic should be condemned by all responsible officials in the former Yugoslavia and around the world. His name should be consigned to the list of history’s most depraved and barbarous figures,” Brammertz said.

He noted that Mladic’s verdict is not a judgment against the Serbian people,  that Mladic’s guilt is his, and his alone and that recognition and protection should be given to the victims, notably witnesses who testified during the trial.

“Today’s judgment should also remind us of the justice that still needs to be achieved. Throughout the former Yugoslavia, thousands of war crimes suspects from all sides remain to be investigated and prosecuted,” Brammerz said, noting that his office is ready to help in those efforts.