By AFP

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The genocide conviction of Ratko Mladic is a "momentous victory for justice", the United Nations said Wednesday, calling the former Bosnian Serbian commander "the epitome of evil."

"Today's verdict is a warning to the perpetrators of such crimes that they will not escape justice, no matter how powerful they may be nor how long it may take. They will be held accountable," UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said in a statement.

Mladic was sentenced to life in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the final trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which is due to close its doors next month.

"Mladic presided over some of the darkest crimes to occur in Europe since World War II, bringing terror, death and destruction to thousands of victims, and sorrow, tragedy and trauma to countless more," Zeid added.

The UN statement noted that Zeid served as a UN protection officer in the former Yugoslavia from 1994 to 1996 and experienced the conflict "first-hand".

What were the crimes?

Mladic was the military commander of Bosnian Serb forces in the 1990s, against Bosnian Croat and Bosniak armies.

Mladic, who has been dubbed "The Butcher of Bosnia", was convicted over crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war that killed 100,000 people and displaced 2.2 million as ethnic rivalries tore apart Yugoslavia.

The Hague-based ICTY found him responsible for the 1995 massacre in northeastern Srebrenica, where troops under his command slaughtered almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

Presiding judge Alphons Orie read out many crimes committed by troops under Mladic's command, including:

• Mass rapes of Bosniak women and girls
• Keeping Bosniak prisoners in appalling conditions - starving, thirsty and sick - and beating them
• Terrorising civilians in Sarajevo by shelling and sniping at them
• Deporting Bosniaks forcibly en masse
• Destroying Bosniaks' homes and mosques

At the end of the war in 1995 Mladic went into hiding and lived in obscurity in Serbia, protected by family and elements of the security forces.

He was finally tracked down and arrested at a cousin's house in rural northern Serbia in 2011 after 16 years on the run.

What happened at Srebrenica?

In early July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces besieged an area near the town of Srebrenica. It had been designated a United Nations "safe zone" and was being guarded by 600 lightly-armed Dutch UN soldiers.

The Serbs attacked from the south, prompting thousands of Bosniak civilians and fighters to flee north to Srebrenica. By July 10 some 4,000 had gathered there. The Serb advance continued, and a bigger surge of refugees fled north to the main Dutch base in Potocari.

Gen Mladic summoned the Dutch commander, Col Thom Karremans, and demanded that the Bosniaks disarm to save their lives.

On July 12, some 15,000 Bosniak men of military age broke out of the enclave. They were shelled as they fled through the mountains. Some were also killed after surrendering.

Buses then deported an estimated 23,000 women and children to Bosniak territory, while the Serbs separated out all males from age 12 to 77 for "interrogation for suspected war crimes".

Hundreds of men were held in trucks and warehouses.

On July 13, 1995 the first killings of unarmed Bosniaks took place in a warehouse in the nearby village of Kravica.

The Dutch peacekeepers handed over about 5,000 who had been sheltering at their base. In return, the Bosnian Serbs released 14 Dutch peacekeepers who had been held hostage at Nova Kasaba, a Serb base.

Over four days, up to 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serbs at sites around Srebrenica.

What was the siege of Sarajevo?

Civilians in the Bosnian capital endured a brutal siege in 1992-1995 at the hands of Bosnian Serb forces, who fired down into the city from the surrounding hills. The death toll was more than 10,000.

It was part of what prosecutors call a Serb "criminal enterprise" to spread terror among Bosniaks and Croats, and to drive them from areas claimed as Serb territory.