SALLY Becker, the woman known as the "The Angel of Mostar" for her rescue of hundreds of wounded children in war-ravaged Bosnia in the mid-1990s, often looks as though she has been traumatised herself.

Last week, when she heard of the capture of Ratko Mladic, the 69-year-old former Serbian commander accused of prosecuting the attack on Srebrenica in July 1995 and perpetrating the single biggest crime of the Bosnian war, she remembered Mira, one of his victims.

The massacre at Srebrenica resulted in the death of about 8000 unarmed Muslim men and boys, plus the incalculable suffering of the survivors. Mira, whose son is still missing, was one of those left behind to remember.

Mladic – who was indicted for his crimes in 1995 but evaded capture for more than 16 years – appeared on Friday before the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague charged with 11 counts of genocide and crimes against humanity. He declined to enter a plea.

“When I heard about Mladic’s arrest, I immediately thought of a woman I met in 1995,” Becker said. “We had opened a centre in Mostar providing treatment for women suffering from trauma and we were looking for those who might need our help. One woman, Mira, was living alone in a darkened basement, barely eating and afraid to go out. She told me that she was one of the Bosnian Muslim refugees taking shelter in the UN compound at Potocari as Serb forces surrounded the area.

“Mladic and his bodyguards handed out chocolates to the children, while they assured the mothers the children would not be harmed.

“The men were separated from the women and taken to collection centres around Srebrenica. Everyone was terrified and Mira remembered two girls being dragged outside and returning later with their clothes in shreds.

“Following negotiations between the UN and the Serbs, the women and children were herded onto buses to be deported, but as Mira prepared to leave with her young son, he was taken from her arms and she never saw him again.”

Becker added: “According to the experts, one of the ways to help people move on from what happened is for those responsible to be brought to account.

“Darko Mladic [son of the former commander] insists his father is not responsible for the crimes committed in Srebrenica – yet he was filmed telling his soldiers that it was time to avenge a massacre carried out by Ottoman Turks almost 200 years earlier.

“Will Mladic’s arrest bring closure for Mira and so many others like her? I doubt it. But at least these women will have the satisfaction of knowing Mladic will no longer be able to walk among them.”

Although the mass executions around Srebrenica have become Mladic’s most notorious act, the massacre was the culmination of years of cruelty that began with the siege of Sarajevo in 1992, a four-year bombardment that killed about 10,000 people, including an estimated 500 children. In Sarajevo, Mladic’s heavily armed military unleashed both artillery and sniper fire on civilians. His forces were also accused of using rape as a weapon of war.

Last week, a few days before news emerged of Mladic’s capture, Becker gave a talk at Sussex University where she described herself as “this mad woman from Brighton” and, with a smile, added: “I’m hardly an angel. Look at me.”

She spoke of how, as a young Jewish woman who had grown up with stories of the Holocaust, who was unmarried and without dependants, she had watched the horror of the Balkans conflict unfold and felt “utterly compelled to help”.

And she said her life had changed after entering the basement of a hospital in East Mostar in 1993 to find “Dante’s hell” in the makeshift children’s ward.

“The hospital had been shelled many times, and many of the patients were in the basement,” she said. “It was almost night when I arrived and at first, I could barely see anything, but I soon became aware of a terrible smell. It was the stench of blood and death. I could see the faces of doctors and nurses, red-eyed, and desperate with exhaustion. The children’s ward was almost unbearable.

“I remember one girl, Maja, who had been injured in a bomb explosion. Children are children, and they will play in the street whether there is a war or not. One of her legs was mangled and the other had already been amputated just below the knee. It was clear if she didn’t get proper medication, she had only days to live. Yet I remember when I met her she smiled this gorgeous smile at me. Sick as she was, she radiated an inner strength.”

Over the course of the conflict, Becker worked as an independent volunteer to evacuate the area of hundreds of wounded children and their families – often driving the ambulances herself through sniper fire and mines.

During the conflict she was imprisoned and shot, but it is the experience of that hospital in East Mostar that continues to haunt her.

Becker said: “Recently, some of the children, including Maja, have been in touch with me. Maja now lives in America. After 150 surgeries and thousands of hours of therapy, she has graduated with a degree in psychology.”

Mark S Smith is the deputy business editor of The Herald and the author of Treblinka Survivor: The Life And Death Of Hershl Sperling