Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian Serb military commander whose forces were behind some of the gravest atrocities of the Balkan wars, including Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, has died at 84.
Mladić, long known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” died in a hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, according to officials from the United Nations court.
He had been held in custody since 2011, when he was arrested after spending years evading capture over war crimes committed during the 1990s conflicts that tore apart the former Yugoslavia.
A U.N. tribunal sentenced him to life in prison in 2017.
Serb Gen. Ratko Mladić stands near a United Nations flag at Sarajevo Airport May 17, 1993. Mladić died Thursday. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Mladić became one of the most infamous figures of a war that killed more than 100,000 people and forced over a million from their homes.
As commander of Bosnian Serb forces, he directed campaigns that seized vast areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, encircled Sarajevo and other cities, and subjected civilians to years of terror. His troops imprisoned non-Serb civilians and captured fighters in detention camps, while prisoners were systematically executed.
Mladić remained defiant to the end of his trial. Despite the severity of the crimes attributed to him, he showed no remorse and shouted at judges as they handed down his life sentence.
Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladić speaks to soldiers near the Bosnian town of Cazin Sept. 4, 1994. (AP Photo/Radivoje Pavicic)
“He was murdered there, in those dungeons,” Janko Seslija, a former Bosnian Serb soldier, told The Associated Press. “I feel sorry for Gen. Mladić. He was an honorable man, honorable soldier and commander.”
A former Communist-era military officer, Mladić sided with the Serbs as Yugoslavia broke apart and disintegrated into war. He led a Serb insurgency in Croatia before taking over the Bosnian Serb army, according to The AP.
Among the horrors Mladić was charged with was the 1995 slaughter of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, which was supposed to be a safe zone guarded by Dutch peacekeepers.
A mural of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladić was vandalized with paint in Belgrade, Serbia, Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Mladić seized the town and assured the Muslim children that everything would be fine. Hours later, his troops began days of rape, torture and mass killings.
