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'Butcher of Bosnia' Ratko Mladic dies in prison

Published : Friday, 28 August, 2026 at 12:15 PM

Observer Online Report

Collected Photo

Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian-Serb general known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for masterminding the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo, has died in prison at age 84.

His lawyer, Dragan Ivetić, confirmed that Mladić died while serving a life sentence at the UN Detention Unit in The Hague. He spent over 15 years in detention following his arrest in 2011.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Mladić in 2017 of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The UN court found him guilty of leading a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against non-Serbs in the early 1990s.

Mladić’s defense team recently filed an urgent plea for early release on humanitarian grounds. They cited a rapid decline in his health, but tribunal authorities rejected the application.

Born in 1942, Mladić trained at the Yugoslav People’s Army military academy in Belgrade and became a career officer. During the Balkan conflict, he commanded the Army of the breakaway Serb Republic in Bosnia, backed by Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević.

His troops carried out the 1992-1994 siege of Sarajevo, where shelling and sniper fire killed over 10,000 civilians. In July 1995, Mladić led the assault on the UN-declared safe zone of Srebrenica, resulting in the slaughter of over 7,000 Muslim men and boys.

Mladić evaded capture for 16 years, living in Belgrade before going into hiding. Serbian authorities finally arrested him in May 2011 and extradited him to The Hague for trial.

Throughout his four-year trial, Mladić maintained his innocence and showed no remorse, attempting to shift blame to his subordinates. Prosecutors ultimately described him as a "master of life and death" who orchestrated Europe's worst post-WWII atrocities.

-SA

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Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury

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