Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. 

Today, the world heard the long-awaited verdict in the trial of General Ratko Mladić. The judgment and sentencing before the Yugoslav war crimes court in the Hague marks the culmination of a case spanning 22 years. Mladić was convicted of 10 counts, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, all of them committed during the conflict that claimed 100,000 lives and left 2.2 million others homeless. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Some of us have campaigned from the sidelines in the pursuit of international justice, but for those who lost husbands and sons 20 years ago, during the Srebrenica massacre and other war crimes, the wounds are still very fresh. One woman lost her husband and both sons at Srebrenica. She said,

'We have been sentenced without a trial. Our children were sentenced to death and expulsion, and we survivors were sentenced to stay living in hell.'

Llywydd, in 2014, I had the honour of leading an Assembly Commission delegation to Bosnia, and to Srebrenica in particular. It was followed by a memorial event in the Senedd that was led by Mr Howard Tucker, the Welsh detective who transformed the work of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Howard served as the head of the ICTY office Bosnia-Herzegovina for eight years during the peak of its activity. Without his outstanding leadership, some of the most notorious war criminals since the second world war would not have been brought to justice. Central to his approach was the skill of community policing. Witnesses had to be identified and supported. Many, initially, were too terrified to speak.

To conclude, Llywydd, today we mark the closure of a horrific chapter in world history, but we must remember and learn the lessons of Srebrenica and address hatreds in our own societies. We must continue to remember its relevance in countering intolerance and discrimination in the UK and elsewhere, and in promoting stronger and more cohesive communities. We must remember Srebrenica and its lessons, and teach them to future generations so that they can live in a peaceful and inclusive society.