The Italian government on Wednesday welcomed Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic's conviction of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations tribunal in the Hague.
"We hope that today's verdict may strengthen relations between the communities blighted by those tragic events (the atrocities of the 1990s Balkan wars during the breakup of Yugoslavia), the foreign ministry said.
Wednesday's sentence against 75-year-old Mladic concerned "one of the most painful chapters in modern European history," the ministry stated.
The statement praised the UN's Hague-based war crimes tribunal for its "key work in support of justice and the fight against impunity".
"Italy has always backed the tribunal's work and its verdicts," the ministry said.
Italy strongly supports western Balkan countries' entry into the European Union, said the statement.
"A strategic objective has been reached in the process of leaving behind any legacy of the region's tragic past - a fundamentally important process that must occur in a spirt of reconciliation and full cooperation between all local players."