Ratko Mladic, ex-Bosnian Serb warlord, dies in prison at 84 : NPR

Key Points:

• Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general responsible for the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica genocide, died at age 84 while serving a life sentence at a hospital in The Hague.
• Mladic was convicted in 2017 by the U.N. tribunal for war crimes during the 1990s Yugoslav wars, including orchestrating the massacre of over 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since WWII.
• Despite overwhelming evidence of his crimes, Mladic remained defiant throughout his trial and sentencing, maintaining a nationalist stance and being regarded by some Serbs as a hero.
• Mladic spent years on the run after the war, living covertly in Bosnia and Serbia before his arrest in 2011; he suffered poor health and multiple strokes during his detention.
• Reactions to his death are mixed, with victims' families mourning ongoing denial of his crimes by some Bosnian Serbs, while supporters in Serb strongholds expressed sorrow over his passing.