Mladic timeline: From breakup of Yugoslavia to UN verdicts

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – United Nations judges will deliver their verdicts Nov. 22 in the trial of former Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic.

Here is a timeline of events leading up to the historic judgment.

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— June 1991: The breakup of the former Yugoslavia formally starts when Slovenia and Croatia declare independence. The Serb-led Yugoslav army withdraws from Slovenia after a ten-day conflict but the war in Croatia then followed that would last until 1995.

— 1991: Mladic, an officer in the Yugoslav army, serves first in the Croatian Serb rebel headquarters of Knin before moving to Bosnia to take over Bosnian Serb troops in 1992.

— April 1992: War breaks out in Bosnia. Bosnian Serbs swiftly take control of over two-thirds of Bosnia and launch the siege of Sarajevo.

— May 1992: Mladic becomes the Bosnian Serb army commander.

— Summer of 1995: NATO bombs Bosnian Serb positions, following the fall of the United Nations-protected Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia and reports of a mass slaughter of Muslim men.

— July 1995: The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia indicts Mladic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic on charges including genocide. The indictment is updated in November to include genocide and other charges linked to the Srebrenica massacre.

— November 1995, the Dayton agreements are signed, ending the war and creating two mini-states in Bosnia, a Bosnian Serb one and a Muslim-Croat one.

— 1996: Mladic formally goes into hiding, after he was removed from the top position in the Bosnian Serb army by then-President Biljana Plavsic. Bosnia was no longer safe as NATO troops were deployed as peacekeepers and were tasked with arresting him. But Mladic later could be seen living freely in neighbouring Serbia, where he attended football matches and dined in Belgrade restaurants.

— Mladic disappears fully after 2000, when a pro-Western government came to power in Belgrade and international pressure mounted for his arrest. There were reports of occasional sightings, and a network of aides helping Mladic hide.

— May 26, 2011: Following intense pressure from the international community on Serbia, Mladic is arrested in Serbia. Five days later he is sent to The Hague to await trial.

— June 3, 2011: Mladic appears in court at the UN tribunal for the first time. He refuses to enter pleas to the charges against him. At a second arraignment hearing on July 4, judges enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.

— May 16, 2012: Prosecutors make their opening statement in Mladic’s trial. After the prosecution case wraps up, Mladic’s defence lawyers file a motion seeking acquittal on all charges. Judges reject the motion.

— May 2014, Mladic begins calling defence witnesses.

— December 2016: During closing statements at the end of the trial, prosecutors urge judges to convict Mladic on all counts and sentence him to life in prison. Defence attorneys call for acquittal.

— Nov. 22, 2017: Judges scheduled to deliver verdicts at the end of the final trial at the U.N. tribunal.