Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, has died at the age of 84 while serving a life sentence for his role in the deaths of more than 100,000 people during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995. He was convicted for orchestrating the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.
According to the Guardian, Mladic died on the 27th while incarcerated at a UN detention facility in The Hague, Netherlands. He had been serving a life sentence for genocide and was hospitalized recently after suffering a stroke. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) issued a statement confirming Mladic's death and noted that Judge Graciela Gatti Santana has ordered a full investigation into the circumstances of his passing.
AP reported that Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, is currently en route to The Hague. Darko had previously indicated that his father's health was deteriorating.
The Bosnian War erupted amid ethnic and religious tensions following the breakup of Yugoslavia. Mladic, often referred to as the 'Butcher of Bosnia,' is accused of overseeing the killings of over 100,000 people during the conflict. According to France 24, the war resulted in 2.2 million refugees. Mladic infamously commanded his troops to 'burn their brains' and boasted of being 'the god of Serbia.'
The most notorious crime attributed to Mladic is the Srebrenica massacre, where 8,000 were killed. Additionally, around 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo, including 1,500 children.
According to reports from the New York Times, Mladic was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1995 but evaded capture for 16 years before being arrested on May 26, 2011, in a rural area north of Belgrade. In 2017, he was sentenced to life in prison, a ruling that was upheld in 2021. Judge Alphons Orie described Mladic's actions as 'the most heinous crimes in human history.' Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called the 2017 life sentence 'a historic moment for justice,' stating that Mladic's punishment demonstrated what justice means to the international community.
Mladic was also known to have received support from former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. He was seen visiting military barracks and attended a soccer match between China and Yugoslavia in Belgrade in 2000. However, this lifestyle ended with Milosevic's downfall in 2000.
In the later years of his life, Mladic's defense team requested his release on humanitarian grounds, arguing that his terminal condition and short life expectancy meant that continued detention served no legitimate purpose and constituted inhumane treatment and punishment.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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