I heard the name of Ratko Mladić a few thousand times growing up. The television news would bring him into the living room like an uninvited guest each evening. But a disintegrating Yugoslavia was far from south London, and hard for even adults to fathom. Besides, there were other names to conjure with. Liam Gallagher. Dennis Bergkamp. Pamela Anderson. A Bosnian Serb in epaulettes didn’t hold the attention.
我成长过程中,听到“拉特科•姆拉迪奇”(Ratko Mladić)这个名字有几千次。每天傍晚,电视新闻都会把他带进客厅,像一位不请自来的客人。但正在分崩离析的南斯拉夫远在伦敦南部之外,即便对成年人来说也很难理解。何况,当时还有其他更值得关注的名字:利亚姆•加拉格尔(Liam Gallagher)、丹尼斯•博格坎普(Dennis Bergkamp)、帕米拉•安德森(Pamela Anderson)。一个身穿肩章制服的波斯尼亚塞族人(Bosnian Serb),并不能吸引人们的注意力。