NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday he welcomed the decision by the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) to uphold the conviction of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnia Serb military wartime commander.

„It is right that he is being held accountable for his outrageous crimes against civilians, including the murder of thousands of Bosnian men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995,“ Stoltenberg was quoted as saying on the NATO official website.

The website added that „NATO helped end two ethnic wars in the Western Balkans in the 1990s and close a dark and shameful chapter in European history. The region remains strategically important to our Alliance. We will continue to contribute to stability and security across the Western Balkans, promoting peace and reconciliation.“