Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide, dies at 84

Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide and war crimes during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, has died at age 84 in a UN prison hospital in The Hague, authorities said Thursday. Serbian state broadcaster RTS and UN officials confirmed his death.

Mladic was serving a life sentence imposed in 2017 by the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on charges including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The conviction was upheld on appeal in 2021. He had been imprisoned since 2011, after spending 16 years as a fugitive following the end of the Bosnian war.

According to reports, Mladic died after suffering multiple strokes while hospitalized. A family member, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the death to the Associated Press and said Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, was traveling to The Hague.

Mladic was the military commander of Bosnian Serb forces and was held responsible for orchestrating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which at least 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in a UN-designated safe area. The massacre is considered the worst bloodshed in Europe since World War II. He was also responsible for the prolonged siege of Sarajevo, during which shells and sniper fire killed and wounded civilians daily.

In recent months, Mladic's health had deteriorated significantly. Serbian officials and his family had requested his transfer to a military hospital in Belgrade on humanitarian grounds, citing his terminal condition and strokes. The UN tribunal rejected these requests, stating that Mladic was receiving adequate medical care in The Hague and that his family could visit him there. The court determined that authorizing his release would not be in the interest of justice.

Mladic was born March 12, 1942, in Bozanovici, Bosnia, then part the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He attended the Belgrade Military Academy and joined the Yugoslav Armed Forces in 1965, where he had a successful military career before the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

He was the military face of what sources describe as a brutal trio, with political leadership provided by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. Mladic was captured on May 26, 2011, in the village of Lazarevo, approximately 100 kilometers north of Belgrade, after years evading international authorities.

The UN tribunal stated that Judge Graciela Gatti Santana ordered an exhaustive investigation into the circumstances of Mladic's death.