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Timeline: Life of Ratko Mladic, general turned ‘Butcher of Bosnia’
Al Jazeera • • general
Key Points:
- Ratko Mladic, convicted for orchestrating the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide, died in prison in The Hague at age 84 while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reaffirmed the seriousness of Mladic’s crimes and expressed solidarity with victims and survivors following his death.
- Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic criticized the UN war crimes court for denying Mladic early release and medical treatment outside prison despite his serious health condition.
- Mladic was a key military commander during the Bosnian War, responsible for the siege of Sarajevo and the genocide in Srebrenica, where over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed despite UN protection.
- Arrested in 2011 after years on the run, Mladic was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017, with a late appeal for release denied in June 2025 before his death in August 2026.
