The horror: why Srebrenica survivors say no punishment can be enough for Ratko Mladic, the Butcher of Bosnia

Bosnian Muslims who lost loved ones in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre said on Wednesday that no punishment was enough for Ratko Mladic, the ex-Bosnian Serb wartime commander jailed for life for genocide.

Mladic, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia”, was convicted by a U.N. tribunal on 10 counts of war crimes including the siege of Sarajevo in which over 10,000 civilians died from shelling and sniper attacks, and the expulsion of hundred of thousands of non-Serbs during the 1992-95 conflict.

“Can there ever be adequate punishment for someone who committed so many crimes? It would be too many even for 300 years, let alone three days,” said Vasva Smajlovic, 74, referring to the Srebrenica slaughter in July 1995.

Her husband, son-in-law and other relatives were among the 8,000 Muslim men and boys taken away and shot dead execution-style after Mladic assured U.N. peacekeepers and local residents that no harm would befall them after his forces seized the town.

“I try to count my dead all the time. I count to 50 and then I’m not able to count any more,” Smajlovic said tearfully while watching a live telecast of the Mladic verdict. “No words can describe how I feel. I am angry. All this comes too late.”