Ratko Mladic, former general convicted of Bosnia genocide, dies

Ratko Mladic, the former commander-in-chief of the Bosnian Serb army, died at the age of 84. Mladic was directly responsible for the Srebrenica genocide, the largest massacre in Europe since World War II, in which over 8,300 unarmed Muslim men and boys were killed in July 1995. The United Nations had previously declared Srebrenica a safe area.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) classified the massacre as genocide. Mladic was also held accountable for other war crimes, including the years-long siege of Sarajevo, which killed around 11,000 people. Mladic consistently denied any responsibility for these atrocities, claiming they were acts of vengeance for centuries of Ottoman rule in the Balkans.

He saw Bosniaks as descendants of Turks and showed no empathy towards them. Mladic, a fervent Serbian nationalist, began his military career as a committed communist. He was arrested in 2011 after 16 years on the run and found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Despite international condemnation, many in Serbia and among Bosnian Serbs still consider Mladic a hero.