Bosnian Serb convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic dies
Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who was serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity during the bloody 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has died. Mladic, the so-called “butcher of Bosnia” died at the age of 84, the Serbian state RTS television and the official Bosnian Serb television reported. His […]
Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, convicted of genocide and war crimes during the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict, has died at the age of 84. According to reports from Serbian state RTS television, the official Bosnian Serb television, and a UN official, Mladic passed away in a UN prison hospital in The Hague, Netherlands. His son, Darko Mladic, is reportedly en route to The Hague.
Mladic was convicted in 2017 for orchestrating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, which saw the deaths of at least 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, a crime the tribunal deemed among the most abhorrent in human history. Former UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein described Mladic as "the epitome of evil." As one of the most notorious figures of the Bosnian war, Mladic commanded his troops to "scorch the brains" of Bosniaks and boasted of being a "Serbian god."
The conflict, which claimed over 100,000 lives and displaced more than a million, saw Mladic's forces lay siege to Sarajevo and other cities, establish camps for detained Bosniaks and enemy soldiers, and conduct systematic killings. The UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found Mladic, alongside Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, to be part of a criminal conspiracy aimed at ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.
Written by urgent.news from The Island Sri Lanka's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
