Ratko Mladić, the former commander of Bosnian Serb forces who was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal, died Thursday at age 84. The United Nations confirmed his death at a medical detention facility in The Hague, Netherlands.
The military leader, who became known as the "Butcher of Srebrenica" for orchestrating the 1995 massacre in the Bosnian town, had been serving a life sentence since his conviction. His lawyers filed a request last May seeking his release due to deteriorating health, but the petition was denied and he remained in custody.
After the massacre, Mladić fled Bosnia and evaded capture for nearly 16 years before being arrested in 2011 at a farm near Belgrade, Serbia. In 2017, he was found guilty of directing and overseeing the killing of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, along with additional crimes against humanity committed in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, resulting in his life sentence.
Throughout his trial, Mladić showed no remorse for his actions, stating: "I want my enemies to die, and there are many of them --- because I am still alive." The presiding judge determined that he "contributed significantly to war crimes" in Srebrenica and in Sarajevo, where the court found he personally directed bombardments and "intended to carry out a lethal operation of shooting and shelling."
