Ratko Mladic dies in UN prison hospital

Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has died in a United Nations prison hospital in The Hague, according to reports by Serbian and Bosnian Serb state broadcasters and confirmation cited by the BBC from a UN official.

Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” was 84, according to NPR and the BBC. Al Jazeera reported that Serbian state RTS television and official Bosnian Serb television gave his age as either 83 or 84. A family member, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, also confirmed the reports and said Mladic’s son, Darko Mladic, was on his way to The Hague. NPR reported that UN court officials told the AP they could not immediately confirm his death.

Mladic was serving a life sentence imposed in 2017 by the UN tribunal for war crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. The tribunal found him guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in a judgment described at the time as addressing crimes “amongst the most heinous known to humankind.” Former UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein called him “the epitome of evil” after the conviction.

His sentence was upheld on appeal in 2021. The BBC reported that he was receiving palliative care in the hospital of the UN jail at The Hague, where he died. In May, a UN court rejected a request for his release as he was nearing the end of his life. The judge agreed that his condition was “dire,” but ruled that he was receiving “comprehensive and compassionate treatment” in prison.

Mladic was convicted of genocide for orchestrating the 1995 massacre of at least 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, a UN-designated “safe area” in Bosnia. The massacre has been described as Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.

When Bosnia’s ethnic war began in 1992, Mladic became commander of Bosnian Serb forces. Under his command, Bosnian Serb troops seized large areas of the country in an effort to create a Serb mini-state. NPR reported that forces under his control laid siege to Sarajevo and other cities and villages, established concentration camps for detained non-Serb civilians and enemy soldiers, and systematically killed prisoners.

The war left more than 100,000 people dead and more than 1 million homeless, according to NPR. Mladic, a former communist officer who became a nationalist warlord, was one of the conflict’s most notorious figures. NPR reported that he ordered his troops to “scorch the brains” of Bosnian Muslims and boasted of being a “Serbian God.”

After the Bosnian war, Mladic evaded arrest for 16 years. He was tracked down in rural Serbia in 2011 and transferred to The Hague, where he stood trial before the UN tribunal. His 2017 life sentence was regarded as a major step in efforts to bring justice to victims of the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia.