Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide and war crimes, has died at age 84. U.N. court officials confirmed his death at a hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, where he was serving a life sentence.
Mladic, often referred to as the "Butcher of Bosnia," was a key military leader during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. His forces were responsible for widespread atrocities, including the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst massacre since World War II.
In 2017, Mladic was sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He was convicted on 11 counts, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Despite the charges and conviction, Mladic reportedly never showed remorse, at one point yelling at judges during his sentencing.
The conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, resulted in more than 100,000 deaths and displaced over a million people. Mladic's Bosnian Serb army gained control of significant territories and operated concentration camps where non-Serb civilians and enemy soldiers were detained, tortured, and systematically killed.
One of the most horrific events Mladic was charged with was the 1995 slaughter of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. The town had been declared a U.N. safe zone and was guarded by Dutch peacekeepers. Following Mladic's forces taking control, his troops engaged in systematic rape, torture, and mass killings.
Mladic, a former Communist-era military officer, sided with Serb forces as Yugoslavia disintegrated into war. He initially led a Serb insurgency in Croatia before taking command of the Bosnian Serb army.
He had been in custody since his arrest in 2011 after years on the run. His death occurred while he was still serving his sentence for the crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.