The end of the "Butcher of Bosnia": Ratko Mladić dies in prison
The Serbian militia commander passed away at the age of 83 after being convicted of war crimes for commanding the forces that carried out the Srebrenica massacre during the Balkan wars. He was arrested in 2011 after years of hiding under a false identity.
Ratko Mladić, commander of the Bosnian Serb militia during the Bosnian War, died at the age of 83. Mladić died while imprisoned at the detention facility in The Hague, after being convicted of genocide following his involvement in the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995.
Mladić was arrested in Serbia in cooperation with Interpol and the Serbian intelligence agency on May 26, 2011, and was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Following Mladić's arrest, Serbian President Boris Tadić announced that this was "the end of a dark chapter in the history of Serbia." Furthermore, the arrest was considered a significant step in Serbia's progress toward joining the European Union.
The Serbian general commanded the forces that carried out the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, during which more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were murdered by shooting, the largest systematic massacre in Europe since the Holocaust. Mladić ordered the prisoners to be loaded onto buses and trucks, separated into small groups, and executed by shooting in abandoned warehouses or open fields. The general even made sure to reassure the prisoners before the shooting, telling them that no harm would come to them.
Mladić also commanded the siege of Sarajevo, during which more than 11,000 people were killed, including more than 1,500 children. Mladić's forces held the hills surrounding the city and fired artillery and sniper fire at Bosnian civilians in the city. The dark event made headlines in the past year after it was revealed that Italian citizens had been guests of Mladić's forces and paid money to shoot and kill civilians.
