People in Bosnia react to the death of Ratko Mladic, ‘butcher of Bosnia’

Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general infamous for overseeing atrocities in Bosnia during the 1990s, has passed away at the age of 84 while incarcerated in a U.N. prison hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, according to reports from Serbian state RTS television and the official Bosnian Serb television. His son, Darko Mladic, is reportedly en route to The Hague.

The United Nations war crimes tribunal, which sentenced Mladic to life in prison in 2017, could not immediately confirm his death. Mladic, who was born on March 12, 1942, in Bozinovici, a village near Sarajevo, was a ruthless nationalist warlord who commanded Bosnian Serb troops and orchestrated the siege of Sarajevo, concentration camps for non-Serb civilians, and the systematic killing of prisoners.

He was responsible for the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica, where over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered, making it the only post-World War II case of genocide in Europe. Mladic, who never repented for his actions, was seen as a nationalist hero by many Serbs. Despite his conviction, he continued to live a life of privilege, attending his son's wedding and sporting events, while maintaining a low profile following his arrest in 2011.