Ratko Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” died at the age of 83 while serving a life sentence after being convicted of genocide. Credit: UN International Criminal Tribunal, CC BY 2.0 / Flickr.
Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” died Thursday at age 83 while serving a life sentence in The Hague for his responsibility for some of the worst crimes committed during the Bosnian War. His death was confirmed by a United Nations official and came after years of health problems and several hospitalizations.
With his death, one of the main military figures responsible for the violence that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s is gone, but the memory of his victims remains. Mladic led the Army of Republika Srpska for much of the war and directed operations that included the siege of Sarajevo, ethnic cleansing campaigns and, most gravely, the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995.
Ratko Mladic, the ‘butcher of Bosnia’ sentenced to life in prison, dies
Mladic was born in 1942 and built his career in the Yugoslav Army before becoming commander of the Bosnian Serb Army. From May 1992, he served as chief of staff of that force, a position from which he played a central role in the military campaign aimed at consolidating territories under Serb control in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The war, fought between 1992 and 1995, was marked by killings, deportations, detention camps and attacks against civilians. Mladic was identified as one of the key figures behind that strategy and, in particular, as responsible for operations against Bosnian Muslims and Croats.
He was also associated with the prolonged siege of Sarajevo—the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina—where civilians were subjected for years to shelling and indiscriminate attacks, including the infamous killings of civilians carried out by snipers on the streets of the capital.
Mladic’s figure became a symbol for Serbian nationalists—a symbol that is now an uncomfortable one for a country seeking to join the European Union as a member—while for survivors, victims’ relatives and the rest of the world, he represented one of the most recognizable faces of the violence and brutality of that war.
Srebrenica, the crime that defined his legacy
The episode that forever defined Mladic’s career was the Srebrenica massacre. In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces seized the enclave declared a “safe area” by the United Nations and guarded by the international organization’s peacekeepers.
After its fall, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, mainly men and boys, were killed in systematic executions, now documented in various mass graves. To conceal the evidence, the bodies were later exhumed from some graves and moved to other locations, making it difficult for years to identify the victims. Thousands of women, children and other civilians were also expelled from the area.
The massacre was legally recognized as genocide and became one of the worst crimes committed in Europe since World War II. Mladic’s role was central: he commanded Bosnian Serb forces during the operation and was later found responsible for genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer, among other crimes.
The television images of Mladic—seen around the world 31 years ago—presenting himself as magnanimous in front of the terrified faces of Bosnian Muslims after the enclave’s conquest still haunt a world that watched, impassively, as Dutch peacekeepers failed to act because of limitations in their UN mandate.
A 16-year escape, life in prison and final judicial defeat
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia formally indicted Mladic in 1995 on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. However, for years he managed to remain beyond the reach of international justice, protected by support networks and Serbian nationalist sectors.
His escape ended in May 2011, when he was arrested in Serbia and transferred to The Hague a few days later. The trial formally began that same year and lasted several years because of the enormous amount of evidence and testimony related to the conflict.
On November 22, 2017, the tribunal found him guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war. He was sentenced to life in prison. The judges found him responsible for some of the main crimes committed during the war, including the Srebrenica genocide and attacks against civilians in Sarajevo.
Mladic appealed the conviction, but in June 2021, the United Nations’ residual judicial mechanism upheld the life sentence and rejected his main arguments.
In his final years, his health deteriorated considerably. He remained imprisoned in The Hague while his lawyers and family repeatedly sought his release on medical grounds. The requests were unsuccessful. Today, the main face of the horror of the Bosnian War finally died in prison, without regaining his freedom and with a genocide conviction that remained the definitive chapter of his legacy.
Mladic was sentenced in 2017 to life in prison by an international court for the crime of genocide, after spending 16 years on the run. Credit: UN International Criminal Tribunal, CC BY 2.0 / Flickr.