Ratko Mladić, the notorious Serbian general who was serving a life sentence for genocide committed during the Bosnian war, has died in prison in The Hague, according to a UN official and his lawyer.
Mladić, 84, was one of the main architects of the policy of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian war. He was convicted of genocide for orchestrating the 1995 killing of at least 8,000 Muslims in the UN-designated “safe area” of Srebrenica, the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War.
Mladić, nicknamed the “Butcher of Bosnia,” had been in poor health after suffering a series of strokes.
Described by former UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein as “the epitome of evil” after his conviction, Mladić was one of the most notorious figures of a war that killed more than 100,000 people and left over 1 million homeless.
He commanded his troops to “scorch the brains” of Bosnian Muslims and boasted of being a “Serbian god.”
The news of Mladić’s death was first reported on Serbian state television after his son Darko had earlier spoken about his father’s declining health.
Mladić was sentenced to life imprisonment by a UN tribunal in 2017 for genocide and war crimes committed during Bosnia’s 1990s war. He was arrested in Serbia in 2011 after 16 years on the run.
The slaughter in Srebrenica was the culmination of a brutal war that had lasted more than three years, during which Mladić oversaw the siege of Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo. The city was pounded daily by artillery, tank, and sniper fire, killing 10,000 people.
The goal of the Serbian leadership, which Mladić was tasked with implementing – as determined by the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) – was the forcible expulsion of Bosnian Muslims, Croats, and other non-Serbs to clear Bosnian land for the creation of a greater Serbia.
The tribunal found that Mladić, together with late Serbian president Slobodan Milošević and Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadžić, were part of a criminal conspiracy to implement the plan.
“I do not recognise this court,” Mladić said at an ICTY hearing on his case in 2014. When he was sentenced, he shouted: “This is all lies, you are all liars!”
The Serbian campaign culminated in the horror of Srebrenica when, after the withdrawal of Dutch UN peacekeeping forces, thousands of Bosnian men and boys were rounded up, killed, and their bodies bulldozed into mass graves.
Mladić had the siege filmed to show him praising his “lads” and haranguing the UN peacekeepers who misguidedly accepted his solemn word that the inhabitants would be safe in his hands.
“We give this town to the Serb people as a gift,” Mladić said to the camera, claiming the victory as revenge against Muslim Turks, who once held the area as part of the Ottoman empire.
The next day, Mladić’s forces were filmed handing out sweets to children, promising their safe passage. Meanwhile, thousands of men and boys were being readied for slaughter.
When Nato tried in 1995 to rein in his forces with the threat of limited airstrikes, his troops seized UN peacekeepers as human shields, chaining them to likely targets.
The son of a Second World War partisan fighter killed in 1945, Mladić was an officer in the Yugoslav People’s Army.The communist Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) was already in place when Yugoslavia began to fall apart in 1991. When Bosnian Serbs rose up in 1992 against Bosnia’s Muslim-led move to secede, Mladić was chosen to lead the new Bosnian Serb army, which quickly took control of 70% of the landlocked country. Dozens of towns were besieged using heavy weapons that had once belonged to the JNA, and villages were burned down, while 22,000 troops from the UN Protection Force stood by, largely powerless, under orders not to take sides.
A mix of Western pressure, NATO strikes, and covert US arms and training for Croats and Muslims gradually turned the tide against Mladić’s army. After the war, Mladić went into hiding, and the reformists ruling post-conflict Serbia didn’t dare move against a man who was a hero to a core group of nationalist Serbs. Mladić kept insisting he was “a simple man” chosen to protect his people.
When he was finally arrested in 2011, he offered no resistance. He had a heart attack in 2013 and seemed older than his actual age. By his own account, he felt like a frail old man. This month, a UN doctor said Mladić’s death “may occur at any time,” possibly within weeks, but his request for release was again denied.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of frequently asked questions about the death of Ratko Mladi written in a natural clear and informative tone
General Background
1 Who was Ratko Mladi
Ratko Mladi was a Bosnian Serb military commander during the Bosnian War He led the Bosnian Serb army and was later convicted of genocide war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations tribunal
2 Why was he called the Butcher of Bosnia
He earned this nickname because of his role in the brutal siege of Sarajevo and most infamously the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995 where over 8000 Bosniak men and boys were killed The name reflects the extreme cruelty and civilian casualties associated with his forces
3 What was his role in the Srebrenica massacre
He was the commanderinchief of the Bosnian Serb forces that carried out the massacre He was found to have planned and overseen the operation which involved separating men and boys from their families and executing them then burying them in mass graves
4 When and where did he die
He died on February 12 2025 at the age of 84 He passed away in a prison hospital in The Hague Netherlands where he was serving a life sentence
5 Was he serving a life sentence
Yes In 2017 the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found him guilty of genocide crimes against humanity and war crimes He was sentenced to life in prison and his appeal was rejected in 2021
His Trial Imprisonment
6 How was he captured after the war
He went into hiding for over a decade He was finally arrested in 2011 in Serbia where he had been living under a false identity using the name Milorad Komadi He was then extradited to The Hague to stand trial
7 What specific crimes was he convicted of
He was convicted of
Genocide for the Srebrenica massacre
Persecution extermination and murder for the siege of Sarajevo and other crimes
He was found responsible for the shelling and sn
