Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb military commander convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1990s Bosnian War, has died at the age of 84.
Dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia,” Mladić led the Army of Republika Srpska during the brutal 1992–1995 conflict following the breakup of Yugoslavia. He was held responsible for supervising the 1995 Srebrenica massacre—the slaughter of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys, recognized as Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II—as well as the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo.
After evading international justice for nearly 16 years, Mladić was captured in Serbia in 2011 and extradited to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague. In 2017, he was sentenced to life imprisonment following a landmark trial, a conviction later upheld on appeal in 2021. Mladić had been serving his life sentence in a U.N. detention facility prior to his death.
