Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief infamously known as the 'Butcher of Bosnia,' has died. He was serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, following his conviction for overseeing the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II.
Mladic, who was believed to be 84 years old, had suffered several strokes in recent months. Calls from Serbian state officials and Mladic's family for his release due to failing health were rejected by the Hague tribunal.
Wartime Commander
Mladic was a key military figure in a trio that also included political leaders Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic, during the descent of the former Yugoslavia into conflict after the fall of communism. The war, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, resulted in approximately 100,000 deaths and displaced 2.2 million people.
Under Mladic's command, Serb forces executed 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, a town that had been designated a UN-protected enclave. He also oversaw a more than three-year siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, during which his snipers and artillery killed thousands of civilians.
Mladic maintained he was chosen by "fate" to defend the Serb people, whom he believed were targeted by a Western onslaught. He once told his appeal hearing in 2020 that Western powers had "devastated" his country with the help of the Vatican and the "Western mafia."
During his wartime leadership, Mladic was described by former Yugoslav army spokesman Ljubodrag Stojadinovic as "narcissistic, conceited, vain and arrogant." Some close allies questioned his mental faculties in the war's final days, with one former Montenegrin president stating Mladic had "lost contact with reality."
Conviction and Capture
Despite being indicted in 1995, Mladic evaded capture for 16 years. He lived in luxury, supported by the Serbian military, until pressure mounted after Milosevic's fall from power in 2000. He was eventually arrested in May 2011 at a relative's country house in northern Serbia.
In 2017, he was convicted of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The tribunal described the crimes as "amongst the most heinous known to humankind." His life sentence was upheld on appeal in 2021.
Former UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein called Mladic "the epitome of evil" following his conviction. However, many Serbs continued to revere him, viewing him as a defender of his people. Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik stated that "Serbs know that without him our people would have suffered much more."
Mladic's daughter, Ana, died by suicide in 1994. Some accounts suggest it was due to the shame of her father's crimes, though his family disputes this. His last request before being transferred to The Hague was to visit her grave.