Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic dies at 84
· UPIAug. 27 (UPI) -- Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic has died at 84 in The Hague, Netherlands, the U.N. said Thursday.
Mladic, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," was sentenced to life in prison in 2017 for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity during the 1992-95 wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Troops under Mladic's command committed "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia-Herzegovina to forcefully remove the non-Serbian population. More than 10,000 people died in Sarajevo, and his forces massacred 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica.
He went into hiding after the war in Bosnia for 16 years and was arrested in 2011 in rural Serbia and put on trial in The Hague. His conviction was upheld in 2021 by the U.N. court. In May, the court rejected his early release on humanitarian grounds, later saying he was unable to speak following a suspected stroke.
The judge agreed Mladic's condition was "dire," but he said the former Serb military commander was receiving "comprehensive and compassionate treatment." At the time, Mladic's attorneys said he had been bedridden or in a wheelchair.
Srebrenica survivor Hasan Hasanovic, who lost his twin brother and father in the massacre, told the BBC that Mladić's death "does not bring closure because the people who were killed in Srebrenica cannot come back."
"His death is just a biological necessity, and it doesn't bring to an end the political project and military project that created that legacy of genocide," said Hasanovic, who works at the Srebrenica Memorial Center. "And we now live with the consequences of a divided country, genocide denial."
The UN court said Dutch authorities are investigating Mladic's death, adding that its judge has ordered a probe.