Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, has died, according to Serbian state broadcaster RTS.
At the time of his death, Mladic was serving a life sentence at The Hague for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He had overseen the Srebrenica slaughter, described as Europe’s deadliest atrocity since World War II, and had suffered several strokes in recent months.
Serbian officials and Mladic’s family had sought his release on health grounds, but the Hague tribunal rejected those appeals.
Mladic served as the military counterpart to political leaders Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić during the violent breakup of Yugoslavia after the fall of communism.
The 1992‑1995 war resulted in approximately 100,000 deaths and displaced 2.2 million people.
His most notorious crime occurred at Srebrenica, where Serb forces under his command killed around 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys who had taken refuge in a UN‑protected enclave.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
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