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Grim Reading: The Mladic Indictment

The news is that "one of the world's most wanted war crimes suspects, Ratko Mladic, was apprehended early Thursday in Serbia after 16 years on the lam."

For an understanding of the horrific crimes that the 69-year-old former Bosnian Serb general is accused of, the 2002 indictment handed down at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (the Hague tribunal where Mladic will likely face justice) is worth reading.

The language is legalistic and somewhat flat. But read these words and then consider what happened 16 years ago:

"Between 12 July and about 20 July 1995, thousands of Bosnian Muslim men were captured by, or surrendered to, Bosnian Serb Forces under the command and control of General atko MLADIC. Over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim prisoners captured in the area around Srebrenica were summarily executed from 13 July to 19 July 1995. Killings continued thereafter."

And that's just one example of the atrocities.

The indictment follows. Click on "Mladic indictment" to get a more readable view.

NPR's Tom Gjelten will have more about the Mladic arrest on All Things Considered.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.