Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, whose murderous role in the Balkan wars of the 1990s led to his moniker as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, has died, aged 84.
Serbian state media reported the death of Mladic on Thursday.
The former general was convicted of 10 charges, including genocide and war crimes, in 2017 by the by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and handed a life sentence.
One of those charges included his actions in Sbrebrenica in 1995, where he oversaw the massacre of 8000 Muslim men and boys. It came to be known as the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.
Mladic’s death in prison followed his health battles earlier this year, with his defence team arguing in March that he was in a “state of advanced, irreversible medical decline,” and should be released.
Mladic had to be taken to the emergency room earlier that month for an unspecified health incident, according to the order.
The 1992-1995 conflict in the former Yugoslavia erupted after the country’s breakup in the early ‘90s, with the worst crimes taking place in Bosnia. More than 100,000 people died and millions lost their homes before a peace agreement was signed in 1995.
Mladic went into hiding for around 10 years before his arrest in Serbia in May 2011.
The pugnacious Bosnian Serb leader was ejected from a courtroom at the United Nations’ Yugoslav war crimes tribunal during the reading of his verdict, after yelling at judges: “Everything you said is pure lies. Shame on you!”
Mladic was the last major figure to face justice from the conflict that ended more than a quarter-century ago. At the time of his death his appeal was still being heard by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals — a court that deals with remaining cases from the now-closed UN tribunals for Rwanda and the Balkan wars.
Judges denied a request for early release in 2025, writing that his “conditions of detention continue to be in full compliance with the principles of humanity and respect for human dignity.” The court also denied a request from Mladic to travel to Serbia in November to attend a funeral.
More to come
