it's time for the closing arguments in the most serious war crimes trial since nuremberg at the end of world war ii. ratko mladic, commander of serb forces in the bosnian war, stands accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and violation of the customs of war. the verdict is expected next week in the hague and will effectively mark the end of more than two decades of work there by the international criminal tribunal. so how do the victims of mladic‘s ethnic cleansing and murder view this moment? and what about other bosnian serbs convicted in the hague so long ago that they've now served their sentences and gone home? mark urban covered the bosnian war through the 1990s. he returned there to speak to those whose lives were altered forever by the war. he's with us now. mark. so much weight attached to this? most viewers in this country, it feels like a long time ago but of course, in bosnia there are still 30,000 people, we can see their faces, missing and unaccounted for whose families do not even know how or where they died but assume the worst. and the country is still divided between the government and the republic of serbs, that creation of the breakaway republic was the central project of ratko mladic and the political leaders so many people still ask and it is a lively debate, is there design still in place? and both main communities still in moments of anger threaten each other but the resumption of war so there is still the sense of unfinished business. we have seen more conflicts since then, will we expect more prosecutions? in a way, this is the uniqueness of what is coming up, the political leader has been found guilty but mladic, the architect of ethnic cleansing, they invented this term, he is coming up for sentencing and it is very unusual, gaddafi, assad, some people would like to see the israelis in front of the criminal court and all of these cases have been vetoed, today i vetoed by the soviet union on investigation of syrian possible use of chemical weapons, the tenth russian veto, they referred that the international criminal court back 2014 along with the chinese and the americans have stopped their allies being involved it is very exceptional and the feelings aroused by general mladic and what happened are still so raw, as we discovered when we went back to bosnia. bosnia is a place haunted by what its people did to one another during their war. and today, the victims' demand demand for an accounting of past crimes must be balanced with the country's desire, somehow, to escape them and move forward. in an old factory in central bosnia, the human cost of the war is still being measured. for it is here that unidentified corpses from mass graves are being delivered, even today, and the families of 30,000 still missing search for answers. this is overwhelming, in a certain way. there are pictures of the missing. there are human remains pretty much everywhere here. by the hundreds. and then, at the end, there are scraps of clothing and other things that have been recovered with them. and this place is the main hope that a lot of the families of those missing have for discovering what on earth happened to a loved one who just disappeared all those years ago. having covered the war 25 years ago, i've come back to explore the impact that one particularly malign man had on the lives of thousands. ratko mladic commanded serb forces in the bosnian war. he is now facing a verdict on an enormous catalogue of war crimes, including genocide. it has taken six years to try. four days ago marked two decades since ratko mladic became the commander of the main staff of the army of republika srpska, the vrs. on that day he assumed the mantle of realising through military might the criminal goals of ethnically cleansing much of bosnia. musreta sivac was a judge herself in the north—western town of prijedor when serb troops took over in may 1992. she was fired and became one of thousands of muslims sent to 0marska, an iron ore plant that would become infamous as a camp where, in a few months, 700 inmates died. 0marska was the product of what was called ethnic cleansing — driving non—serbs out of much of bosnia. 37 women were used to serve in the camp's dining hall. during the day they could hear torture going on in the nearby dormitories. and night brought its own anguish. mr kvocka, please rise. early on, the hague tribunal tried several of the 0marska guards. one of those trials featured miroslav kvocka. a policeman at the start of the war, he was described in court as deputy commander of the camp. then, as now, he portrays himself as someone who saved his muslim wife's relatives from the horror of the camp. the chamber considers that isolated acts of kindness to some prisoners do not absorb any individual of crimes which may have been committed. the court said he was culpable ofjoint enterprise. he knew what was going on and didn't stop it. the chamber finds you guilty of the crime against humanity, persecution, and the war crimes, murder and torture. in the war we used to travel into sarajevo via mount igman. we're here again. this place, a remnant of the winter olympics, became a battleground as the focus of the war shifted from the area around prijedor to bosnia's capital. from the beginning of the conflict, mladic brought to bear the serb army's superiority in artillery. and as this intercepted conversation showed, used it against the population of sarajevo. so, you had come out of the flat that morning? mia karamehic was a seven—year—old living on this street. the siege had just started and she was brought out by a rumour of ice cream. the earth began to shake. i went flying up in the air. i could see everybody lying on the street. people in pieces, a lot of blood. in those dreadful moments, in which 20 people died, a cameraman captured this fleeting image of mia being carried off. she survived shrapnel wounds. her mother lost a leg in the blast. together, the family and neighbours endured the following three years during which, at times, 1000 shells a day would fall on the city. the hague process has gone on for so long that some convicts have done their time in european prisons and come home. a few years ago, jubilant crowds turned out to meet momcilo krajisnik as he returned. he was the speaker of the serb parliament and, having served his punishment, accepts people on his side were also guilty of war crimes. but across in the east of the country, events reached a tipping point in the final year of the war. the genocide indictment against general ratko mladic divides his crimes into various phases. the early part of the war around prijedor in north—west bosnia. then the siege of sarajevo in the centre. and then, finally, the enormous catalogue of crimes that took place in this place in 1995. srebrenica. the un had declared the srebrenica enclave to be a safe area. but in fact, as mladic planned its capture, the dutch un troops who were meant to defend it had been abandoned by their higher commanders. srebrenica was overrun and more than 20,000 frightened muslim women and children crammed into the dutch base. rob zomer was one of the soldiers there. still, any time when i walk in this door, a split—second, i smell and see the people. dead people. there is no toilets. babies. everything together. you cannot mention how much it was. thousands of people. as srebrenica fell, one woman gave rob zomer her baby to look after. how desperate must a lady be to give to some strange guy, because he has a blue helmet? because in that moment it was the best thinking for her to give her baby. he passed the child onto medics and it survived. mladic guaranteed the women and children's safe passage. but meanwhile, his troops hunted the men of srebrenica. they were gathered in places like this school. the man who told us that — mevludin 0ric — went back with us for only the second time since serb troops brought him and hundreds of others here to kill them. mevludin survived by playing dead among the corpses and at night he escaped over the mountains to government territory. in prijedor, where musreta sivac returned after the war, there are also reminders everywhere. some men who were never arrested, others who have served their sentences and she now encounters on the streets. miroslav kvocka, taking labouring jobs since his return, is unable to leave the past behind or get over what he regards as an injustice. mevludin 0ric is haunted by the loss of his father, brother and numerous cousins and also by the fact that he still recognises serbs around here from those killing fields. for momcilo krajisnik, it's pointless quibbling with a sentence he has already served. he is done with raging against the hague and today thinks politicians have to leave their sectarian approach behind. thousands of survivors demand that as trials end soon in the hague, the pursuit of war crimes should go on in bosnia itself. and that's what will happen in a country where the political elites that started the war and benefit from continued division still call the shots. that film by mark urban and producer maria polahovska. you can see a longer version of the film on our world this saturday and sunday at 9:30pm on the bbc news channel. brexit secretary david davis has been speaking in berlin tonight, telling the eu not to put politics above prosperity as he addressed an economic summit. he also suggested the eu would need to "think creatively" about how things would operate post—brexit. nicholas watt is here. did you hear a threat or promise in that? i think it shows frustration on the uk side as what they regard as an inflexible approach by the eu in these negotiations and they're saying, look, we want some flexibility and thinking about the great trading opportunities you could have with one of the richest countries in the world but it is also interesting to note that david davis was more emollient on the issue of the brexit financial settlement, as he made clear in a question and answer with the editor of the suddeutsche zeitung. are we approaching between 20 and the 100? laughter wait for another few weeks before i answer that. what those ratherjovial remarks by david davis show is that the uk is prepared to put more than the 20 billion that is already on the table ahead of the next european council next month. this sounds odd but why does the money matter so much? britain hopes that if they can put the money on the table, extra money, that the eu will then open up the future trade talks and that they would also outline the frameworks of the implementation period and this was a point that david davis made clear in his speech tonight. but no matter what approach we take, both sides will need time to implement those new arrangements. that is why the prime minister set out in her florence speech that we want to secure a time—limited transition period. that would mean access to the uk and european markets would continue on current terms, keeping both the rights of a european union member and the obligations of one, such as the role of the european court ofjustice. that also means staying in all the eu regulators and agencies during that limited period, which, as i say, we would expect to be about two years. now what is interesting there, at the beginning of those remarks, david davis talked about a transition period. that is the language used by the eu. the prime minister talks about an implementation period, implementing the future agreement over a phased period and he also talked about during that two—year period, the uk would have to observe the rights and obligations of the eu. thank you forjoining us. last night, we asked what would happen if robert mugabe refused to step down. tonight, he appears to be refusing. there have been no public statements, just a few photos that have emerged of the 93—year—old leader meeting the army chief leading the move against him and envoys sent from south africa. we did hearfrom mugabe's long—time rival, the opposition leader morgan tsvangirai. in the interest of the people of zimbabwe, mr robert mugabe must resign, step down immediately, in line with the national sentiment and expectation, taking full regard of his legacy and the contribution to zimbabwe. mr mugabe's zanu—pf party has promised free and fair elections, but not until next august. they are scheduled then. we'll hear first from shingai nyoka who's in harare. i began by asking her what the atmosphere was like in zimbabwe this evening? they are waiting for an announcement. today, president robert mugabe met with the generals as well as with south african envoys and on social media there was a flurry and people were wondering whether at the end of those negotiations there would be some kind of announcement about what the future holds. we understand that those talks were done but it is not clear whether president mugabe made any kind of agreement with the generals but the pictures appeared of him with one of the commanders who many believe has led this takeover, and they shook hands and they were smiling and so people are generally confused about what is actually happening and how and where this will all end. has there been any sign of mugabe's wife, grace, or indeed of the deposed vice president, who fled the country? there has been no sign of grace mugabe ever since this takeover happened. in fact, president mugabe only emerged today after days where he has been under house arrest and there was no mention of where his wife is. there has been a lot of speculation and rumour about whether she has left the country or whether she is still here. but the belief is that she remains in zimbabwe and the deposed vice president, we understand, is still outside the country. there has been a lot of secrecy around the events of the last few days and people are just waiting and hoping that the next few days will bring some kind of clarity. earlier, i spoke to eddie cross. he was one of the founder members for the movement for democratic change, zimbabwe's main opposition party for which he is still a member of parliament. security in the nation's capital is currently difficult so we spoke to him over skype. eddie cross, your leader morgan tsvangirai has said he wants mugabe gone within 2a hours. what do you understand has happened now? well, i think it's quite clear, the military have certainly taken charge of events in zimbabwe but the man behind the military is emmerson mnangagwa. this has been a very carefully orchestrated and smooth operation. it has been managed extremely well, with the minimum of bloodshed so far. and i think that mr mugabe has little or no choice at all but in fact to tender his resignation within the next 2a hours. i think morgan was absolutely right about that. and i don't think he has any option but to do so. what happens if he just refuses? oh, i really can't see that happening. because he's lost complete support here. his own compatriots in the war veterans league, which is very influential, have abandoned him. the public... the public attitude towards the situation is one of jubilation. they are delighted with the move adopted, the moves adopted by the army. and i think that really, regionally, he has little or no support. i don't think the sadc meeting today in gaborone has any chance whatsoever of bringing any influence to bear on him. is he still trying to get his wife grace as his successor? is that the plan? no, i think that's dead and gone. that's done and dusted. i don't think she's in the country. i think she's left the country. and i think that she won't come back. that, that i think is dead and buried. but i think the issue now is, because the man, the person who holds the constitutional right to power is mugabe. and he has to resign and hand over power to emmerson mnangagwa if the transition of power is to be constitutional and i think that is their objective. and would you expect, if that happens, for your party leader, morgan tsvangirai, to become the prime minister under emmerson's presidency? there's no provision for a prime minister under our present constitution so that would require a constitutional change. but what morgan made very clear today was that he would, he would call for a transitional government to run the country for a short period and to repair the country for a free and fair election which could then be... could then be contested by everybody who wants to contest, in the shortest possible time. i, i think that those negotiations almost certainly will start because i don't think emmerson mnangagwa has any option but to do a deal. this has all been talked about very calmly with great orderliness, almost forgetting that he is one of the most brutal dictators of our time. do you believe that mugabe should be held responsible now for war crimes against his own people? that is a tough call because, you know, in the end, we have got to live together. i don't think that... i don't think that we will humiliate mugabe. i think that we will allow him to retire with dignity. what he wants, what he's asking for is protection for his assets. he's a multi—billionaire. and i'm not sure whether we can extend our generosity to that extent. but the question of prosecuting him for his past abuses of people here, the genocide in the 80s, for example, during gukurahundi, i don't think that'll happen. i think that he will be allowed to retire with dignity and i think that is what africa would want. eddie cross, many thanks. much will depend on how the wider community views any change and one intriguing question, where does china stand, a country that invested so much, built infrastructure within zimbabwe under mugabe's rule. here is mike thompson. almost before the british flag had descended the flagpole, the newly independent zimbabwe rushed to forge diplomatic ties with china, which had supported the war against white minority rule. since then these two nations, each often shunned by the western world, has grown ever closer. not so much a marriage of love, more won of financial convenience. money for cash—strapped harare and raw materials for a source hungry beijing. the chinese currency is traded in zimbabwe alongside the mighty us dollar and guess where they came from? not washington but beijing's huge stash of foreign reserves. over the past couple of years china has put $30 million every month into zimbabwe, built the new parliament building, given 0% longs for a medical facilities, constructed academic centres, operated platinum mines and invested in power plants and promised a further $4 billion in direct investment. china is the most important player in zimbabwe. 0ver1 billion us dollars in 2013. china is one of the top trading partners of zimbabwe. given this cosy and rewarding relationship, isn't beijing upset about its old friend, robert mugabe, being given the push? going by the lack of any chinese requests for his reinstatement, possibly not. i don't think china is terribly worried about mugabe's leadership. the relationship between china and zimbabwe is notjust a relationship between china and mugabe. china's concerns about mr mugabe's mismanagement of the zimbabwean economy have apparently been showing themselves for sometimes, in the shape of promised chinese investments that have failed to arrive. mugabe has been irritated by the fact that large investment, joint ventures in the resource sector and things of that nature have often not actually been implemented and the consequences of that have been to keep the economy in its continued tailspin. could the move against mugabe have come because his rule was impoverishing zimba bwe's elite as well as hitting chinese investors? one of the things that mugabe had done or the government had done in recent years was to cancel licences in the diamond fields, where there were joint ventures and with dumb two chinese companies in particular but the military backed interest in exploiting diamonds. and this seemed to be a signal that business as usual could not carry on. so when the head of zimbabwe's armed forces went to beijing last week, rather than asking permission to oust mr mugabe, was the instead explaining why it took him so long? josh rivers has described his own comments as horrible. said they were cries for help and came from a place of deep unhappiness. nevertheless, the newly appointed editor of the magazine gay times has had his employment terminated with immediate effect following an investigation into the abhorrent things he wrote on twitter. the magazine has also removed all articles written by rivers. three years ago, rivers was posting tweets that were anti—semitic, anti—tra nsgender. he lashed out at lesbians, and fat people and ugly people and disabled kids. here's a sample. that is just a flavour. he apologised today and said he'd changed. so, you're probably thinking, "0ne bigot with a pretty big problem. it could be anyone, anywhere". so why are there voices now suggesting a wider problem? what are they pointing at? let's discuss this with mabin azar, journalist and film maker, and tofer campbell, film maker and writer, and friend ofjosh rivers. very nice to have you both here. you think this is a wider problem? i do, it might make us really uncomfortable and i think a lot of people winced when this came out, it makes me hugely uncomfortable that this happened, but we have to confront the truth here and that is from my perspective, lots of people in minority groups, including lots of gay men, are angry and bitter and we have to understand where that comes from. from a place of trauma and hurt. it is to do with being judged since they were kids and so forth. there is a context there. but it means that as a community, we are acid tongued and we can be misogynistic, we can be racist and sometimes we feel that we have license to lash out. and that is not in any way acceptable. an extraordinary thing to say. do you recognise that? firstly, i would say it is a remarkable claim that gay times appointed the first person of colour to a major gay magazine and that is a great thing and also that is because of the work that josh rivers had done at the magazine for some time and he has been doing this work and engaging with you and young audiences and readers and bringing in a more diverse readership so that is the reason he was there and it was a significant appointment, here in 2017, that that happened. that is why we are talking about it. to be fair, we're talking about it because of those incredibly offensive and abhorrent tweets that got him sacked. do you condone what he wrote? absolutely not. he himself has apologised and he has also been sacked and he has paid the price. it is interesting how i think people of colour who are leaders and queer people, they getjudged by different standards. you can see this with the resignation of the sacking of priti patel. but borisjohnson has called black people pick on knees in print. when you see the standards applied to black and queer leadership, they are very different to those applied to white leadership. this is partly to do with some of the way... i think this is really difficult and a lot of the online discourse after their story broke today and lots of people have said things like, there is a misogynist running the white house so this is small news. let us be realistic, the story here is that somebody in a position of power, yes, a person of colour and it is wonderful gay times appointed him, and i am also, as a british asian, but this was great. but that is not the story. the story is, he insulted, he was racist and misogynistic and insulted old people, fat people, disabled people, 30 much most of society. that is the issue and we need to face up to that as a problem and not turn him into the victim. he is not the victim. they started by saying that he recognises something of the acid tongue, people think of their own victimisation and giving them a license to say but they like about other members of the community? do you recognise that? i recognise that in the gay community and the queer community there is a lot of self—loathing, lack of self—confidence, which has brought around by the wider society issues of homophobia. i recognise that if you are black and queer and a person of colour, you're in a situation where you have a double situation of racism and homophobia, josh rivers, as somebody who has recognised that when he was younger that he has gone through a self—loathing period and that is something we have to definitely think about. i think that for people of colour who are queer and generally, issues of racism and homophobia are ones which we have to face from the wider society and the wider gay society also and that is something we have to think about. i am very worried about creating the prior of a black, gay man who has had one small position. —— pariah. that is critical. if you enlarge this too much you create more of a sense if we knew this would happen if we appointed a black gay man to that magazine? what it is notjust about a black gay man, it is about his position of responsibility. it makes me uncomfortable to talk about this publicly but lots of gay men and gay people generally do have this sense of entitlement about things like misogyny. i have been in rooms with lots of gay men who refer to women in the most awful way and they will say it is a joke and i know that comes from a place of trauma and hurt. as a community, we need to address that. i am not saying anything thatjosh has not said himself, today he said he is on a journey. the issue is, we can be cynical. of course he is a journey because he was caught doing something he should not have done. of course you can say that now. josh? i know josh personally and he is definitely on a journey in terms of his personal development and his development into perhaps a high—profile position as a leader. only talk about having the conversation, let us talk about... recently, the person who owns a nightclub, jeremy joseph, tweeted around the idea that all somalians are robbers and we have had comments, much more insidious racism and even the alliteration and invisibility of black queer people in the gay media and the mainstream media speaks to other kinds of conversations we have to have. i would like to have this conversation where we talk about the recent survey around gay racism where 85% of black gay men felt they had experienced racism. 79% of races —— asian men. these are very important. we need to have a longer debate about this and i am sorry to cut you off. we have run out of time. we will return to this. thank you both very much. that's it for this evening. but first, you may have seen the sun's front page today, accusing bbc workers of snoozing on the job. tonight we can exclusively reveal it's just the tip of the iceberg. not a soul in broadcasting house is awake. ever. bbc output is quite literally dreamed up by producers in their sleep. needless to say, the newsnight team is already hard at work conjuring up another fine programme which we will no doubt bring you tomorrow with kirsty. goodnight. lullaby plays. the whare will be pretty frosty tonight. a lot of clear skies out there right now. the temperatures are dropping like a stone. below freezing in a number of areas already. as cold front has been living through the country during because of the day. behind it we have colder polar air coming in. a crisp night on the way that means that the weather for friday is looking pretty good. at the end of the night, the only real thing to point out is showers across northern and north—western parts of scotland carried by the breeze. perhaps not quite so cold. in towns and cities it will be 2— three degrees, even in the centre of london. in rural spots even colder than that. i would not be surprised if it gets down to minus four degrees in one or two areas. that is early friday morning. let us look at the rest of the morning. very little changes. lots of sunshine, light winds as well. the showers keep on going in the north of scotland. it is going to feel quite chilly. some wintry showers across the hills as well, the very tops of the hills. and that is written at all i have got to save for friday. the temperatures around eight degrees in newcastle, may be nudging up to ten briefly. most of the day it will be about 5— seven degrees across the uk. a very chilly friday night on the way. if you are out and about on friday night it will fill prydie goal. the breeze and the showers continue in scotland. saturday, starts off on a very different note. we are expecting a lot of cloud and some light rain across the southern half of the uk. london in the north. by the time we get to the afternoon it should brighten up. sunday we are between weather systems. 0ne up here and one in the atlantic. this mini area of high pressure builds in. it is not a very strong one. weather fronts will be starting to push in late on sunday. the thinking is, on sunday, western areas will cloud over, may be reined by the end of the day, in the east we keep the sunshine. another chilly day on sunday. we are in a chilly or cool snap at the moment. by the time we get to monday, the milder air comes backin get to monday, the milder air comes back in again off the atlantic. that is it. if you have got a day off tomorrow, enjoy it. it will be an absolutely cracking day. goodbye. coming up next on the bbc news channel, newsday looks at the latest international news. tomorrow morning, join businesslike for global business news at 8:30am followed by lively debate and breaking news in the victoria derbyshire programme at nine a.m.. i'm mariko 0i, in singapore. welcome to newsday. the headlines: a president with no power. zimbabwe's robert mugabe meets the army chief who placed him under house arrest. the united nations secretary general tells the bbc a "massive effort of reconciliation" is needed in myanmar to end violence against the country's rohingyas. the rohingya population is probably the most discriminated population of ever seen the most discriminated population of ever seen in the world. desperation too for the millions in yemen living under blockade and on the brink of famine. saudi arabia's foreign minister says his country is not to blame. one of asia's last nomadic tribes is forced to choose between modernity or starvation. we have a special report from the rainforests of indonesia.

Related Keywords

, United States , United Kingdom , Washington , Beijing , China , South Africa , Yemen , Indonesia , Syria , Russia , Sarajevo , Federation Of Bosnia And Herzegovina , Bosnia Herzegovina , Srebrenica , Republika Srpska , London , City Of , Harare , Mashonaland East , Zimbabwe , Netherlands , Israel , Singapore , Gaborone , South East , Botswana , Saudi Arabia , Berlin , Germany , Prijedor , Americans , Israelis , Chinese , Soviet , Serbs , British , Dutch , Syrian , Serb , Scotland , Bosnian , Momcilo Krajisnik , Mount Igman , Ratko Mladic , Emmerson Mnangagwa , Eddie Cross , Priti Patel , Morgan Tsvangirai , Jeremy Joseph , Robert Mugabe , Skype Eddie Cross , Mike Thompson , David Davis ,