Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for his role in the Srebrenica massacre, has died aged 84.
He was held responsible for the killing of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in what was called one of the “most heinous” crimes in human history by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which convicted him.
He was charged with genocide and sentenced to life in prison in 2017.
The massacres took place in July 1995 when Mladic’s troops rounded up thousands of unarmed Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica, lined them up while tying their hands behind their backs and shot them over a period of several days. Women and girls were systematically raped.
Remains of the deceased were then bulldozed into mass graves, which were later dug up and hauled away in order to hide the extent of the killings.
Earlier this year, his attorneys requested his release on humanitarian grounds as his defence teams said he was in a state of “advanced, irreversible medical decline”.
Reports said that Mladic died in a UN prison hospital in the Hague, in the Netherlands. A family member confirmed the news to the Associated Press and said that his son Darko Mladic was on the way to the Hague.
Mladic promised to avenge the conquest of Serbia by the Ottoman Muslim Turks on the eve of the massacre, before having his soldiers hunt down groups of men and boys and execute them over 10 days.
It followed his forces’ 43-month-long siege of Sarajevo with thousands of civilians killed and dozens of towns besieged and burned down.
At least 22,000 UN peacekeeping troops with orders not to take sides stood by while the ordeal continued.
Mladic had a cameraman film a blitz of the enclave of Srebrenica while he extolled troops he called his “lads” and harangued hapless Dutch UN peacekeepers and told them the inhabitants would be safe. He also took the Dutch commander of the force to a room where he slit the throat of a live pig before him and said: “That’s how we deal with our enemies.”
A video from the period shows Mladic’s bodyguards handing out candles to Muslim children and assuring them that “no one will be harmed” while troops planned the massacre.
After the incident, footage showed Mladic proclaiming that he had “liberated” Srebrenica and had gifted it to the Serbs as revenge against the Turks.
Over 11,000 people were killed, including 1,500 children, during the three and a half year conflict, with local sports fields overflowing with graves.
He acted alongside Radovan Karadzic, the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, and the court determined that the pair were aided, armed and abetted by Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
Karadzic was convicted by the ICTY in 2016 and was jailed for 40 years. Milosevic died in his cell in 2006 before his trial ended.
"His descendants can only read about his past and, if they have feelings, be ashamed of what he did," said Kada Hotić, a survivor and prominent member of the Mothers of Srebrenica movement.
Mladic was born on 12 March 1943 to a Serb father who was also part of the communist-led resistance and who died when he was a young boy. He worked as a metalworker before entering military schooling, where he rose swiftly to prominence.
His daughter is reported to have died by suicide in 1994 and was reportedly disturbed by her father’s actions in the run-up to the incident.
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