Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," has died aged 84 in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity.
He was found guilty by an international court of genocide committed against around 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica, a United Nations-protected area, in the summer of 1995, of terrorizing civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, and other war crimes during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Mladic "never expressed remorse in a single sentence in his cell," Sahida Abdurahmanovic, who lost her husband in the Srebrenica massacre, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service in response to the news of his death.
"The only thing we can regret now as victims of genocide is that he really stayed in The Hague all these years, that he wasn't transferred...to a prison where he deserved to be. He had hotel accommodation in The Hague," she added.
"Death does not bring forgiveness. Mass graves do not disappear. Murdered children do not return. Fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters do not return. What remains is only shame, the verdict, and the bloody trail of crimes," wrote Bosnian Defense Minister Zukan Helez on social media.
Mladic was arrested in Serbia on May 26, 2011. He had been the most wanted Hague fugitive, having evaded justice for almost 16 years, before he was finally detained and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
The Hague Tribunal confirmed his life sentence on June 8, 2021, rejecting an appeal by Mladic's lawyers. It was the culmination of a marathon legal process that documented in shocking details some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war.
During the trial, which began on May 16, 2012, and lasted 530 days, 592 witnesses were called and around 10,000 pieces of evidence were presented.
Despite this, Mladic has continued to be supported by Serbian nationalists.
Responding to news of his death, longstanding Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik declared that Mladic had been fighting for the freedom of the Serbian people.
A statement by an association representing relatives of those killed at Srebrenica stated that "the memory of the victims must outlive both him and any policy that sought to justify or relativize what international courts established as facts."
Ill Health
Mladic had suffered several strokes in recent months, leading to appeals for his release on humanitarian grounds by his family and also by Serbian officials. The Hague tribunal rejected those requests, the latest of which was filed on August 18.
"The interests of justice and general legal principles do not require release merely because imminent death is expected," said Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, explaining the decision on August 26.
"The punishment, in addition to being a deterrent, should express the international community's condemnation of the conduct in question and its unwillingness to tolerate serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights," she added.
In a statement confirming Mladic's death, the Tribunal said an inquiry into the causes of Mladic's death would begin in accordance with "the standard procedures and investigations required under Dutch national law."
