Ratko Mladic, 'Butcher of the Balkans' Convicted of Muslim Genocide, Dies in Prison

Ratko Mladic, serving a life sentence for war crimes including ethnic cleansing of Muslims during the Bosnian War, has died at the age of 84, Serbian state broadcaster RTS reported on August 27 (local time).

Mladic, who was detained at the United Nations Detention Unit (UNDU) in The Hague, Netherlands, had reportedly suffered multiple strokes and cognitive impairment recently.

In response, Mladic's family had requested his early release to send him to Serbia for medical treatment, but the request was denied.

The UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) issued a statement confirming that Mladic passed away while receiving treatment at a hospital in The Hague.

The statement added that Mladic's death was immediately reported to the medical officer of the UNDU, and that Dutch authorities and the IRMCT have each launched investigations to determine the circumstances of his death.

The IRMCT explained that at the time of his death, Mladic was awaiting transfer to another country to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Mladic's family announced that his son was heading to The Hague after receiving news of his death, according to the Associated Press.

Dubbed the "Butcher of the Balkans," Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment by a UN war crimes tribunal in 2017 for orchestrating atrocities committed by Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian War, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in the northeastern Bosnian town.

AP noted that Mladic had ordered his troops to attack Bosnian Muslims by telling them to "burn their brains," and had referred to himself as the "God of Serbia."

He was indicted in absentia in 1995 for the Srebrenica massacre, widely considered the worst act of genocide in Europe since World War II. After 16 years on the run, he was arrested by Serbian authorities in 2011 and transferred to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The Bosnian War, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, erupted as ethnic and religious conflicts exploded during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc communism in the early 1990s.

After Slovenia and Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina also pursued independence. Bosnian Serb forces attempted to block this, leading to extreme confrontation with pro-independence Bosnian Muslims and Croats in a tragedy that claimed more than 100,000 lives.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.