Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander convicted of war crimes for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, died in hospital on Thursday, according to a United Nations international tribunal. Mladic, who had suffered multiple strokes in recent months, was serving a life sentence at The Hague for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Mladic was found guilty of overseeing the execution of approximately 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, a U.N.-declared safe area, during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995. This massacre marked one of the most horrific episodes of violence in Europe since World War II. The war itself caused around 100,000 deaths and displaced 2.2 million people.
As the military leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Mladic was part of a leadership trio that included former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic. Together, they orchestrated a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at creating a Greater Serbia by forcibly removing Bosniak and Croat populations. The atrocities committed under Mladic’s command led to his arrest in 2011 after years in hiding. He was convicted in 2017, and his life sentence was upheld on appeal in 2021.
Serbian state officials and Mladic’s family had requested his release on humanitarian grounds due to his deteriorating health, but the tribunal rejected these appeals.
Reactions to Mladic’s death were deeply polarized. In Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, many welcomed the news. Survivors and victims’ families reiterated that Mladic’s name would forever be linked to genocide. Sehida Abdurahmanovic, a representative of the Mothers of Srebrenica victims’ association, said the atrocities could never be erased from his legacy. Hava Suljic, a Bosnian Muslim from Srebrenica, described Mladic’s death as one fewer war criminal alive. Almasa Salihovic, spokeswoman for the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, noted that thousands from Srebrenica were robbed of their lives by Mladic’s orders.
In contrast, attitudes in Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb-majority entity, highlighted a starkly different perspective. Local authorities urged residents to honor Mladic in churches, while prominent figures like former Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik praised him as a heroic figure. Some residents called him the “greatest general of the Serbian people,” reflecting enduring reverence among certain Serb communities.
Russia criticized the ICTY tribunal, claiming it showed “deliberate disregard for basic rules of impartiality and fair treatment” in convicting Mladic.
Mladic’s death closes a chapter on one of the darkest periods of the Balkans conflict. The United Nations Secretary-General expressed solidarity with the victims and survivors who endured the crimes for which Mladic was held responsible. The international tribunal described the crimes as among the most egregious in modern history, while human rights figures labeled Mladic as embodying extreme brutality.
Mladic’s exact age had long been disputed. He claimed to have been born in March 1943, while the tribunal listed 1942 as his birth year. Local reports cited his age at death as 84.