Ex-Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic dies

Former ⁠Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who was serving ‌a ⁠life sentence for genocide in the 1992-95 war ‌in Bosnia, ⁠has ‌died aged 84 in the United ⁠Nations detention ‌centre in The Hague, a UN official has said.

Serbian state broadcaster said the man, dubbed the 'Butcher of Bosnia', died in a prison hospital after suffering several strokes.

In 2021, the United Nations tribunal in The Hague rejected his appeal against his 2017 life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war.

Mladic, who spent a decade on the run before his capture in 2011, was the military face of a brutal trio led on the political side by ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

Mladic was found guilty of genocide for personally overseeing the massacre of 8,000 men and boys at the supposedly UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica as part of a campaign to drive out Muslims.

UN chief Antonio Guterres expressed his support for the war crime victims of Mladic.

"The secretary-general stands in solidarity with the victims, survivors and their families who suffered the crimes for which Mr Mladic was found guilty," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.