“Today’s sentence reminds me of the terrible things that happened during the war, some of which I have personally witnessed as secretary to cardinal Puljic, with whom I travelled the length and breadth of the country”: this is the comment made to SIR, off the cuff, by mgr. Ivo Tomasevic, general secretary of the Bishops Conference of Bosnia Herzegovina, about the life sentence given to Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army general, that was issued today by the International Criminal Court of The Hague. In recalling those years, mgr. Tomasevic expresses his “sadness” because “the policy that was practised back then resulted in a huge number of victims, people driven out of their villages, houses destroyed, churches and mosques wiped out. A huge number of crimes were committed, and many of the people involved did not probably know what they were doing, people acted according to the atmosphere that had come about”, he states. In addition, mgr. Tomasevic is sorry that many years later there is no wish to admit one’s mistakes. “Mladic too, as anyone, will be in front of the Lord, the judge of life, one day, and the reaction he had today makes one sad”. “One should be able to admit one did something wrong and to apologise for what has been done, and, if possible correct, at least in part, the evil done”. Tomasevic thinks that “a facility is needed in Bosnia Herzegovina to help refugees and war victims”.