Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide for the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, has died at 84. He was serving a life sentence imposed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, whose appeals ruling was confirmed in 2021.
Serbian state broadcaster RTS reported he died in a prison hospital in The Hague after suffering several strokes; his son Darko Mladic was traveling to the Netherlands. A family member confirmed the death to the Associated Press, and his lawyer announced it from Belgrade. Two days earlier, Serbia's justice minister had warned his death could come at any time and requested his transfer to a Belgrade military hospital.
The 1992-95 Bosnian war killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions. The 2022 Dutch apology for peacekeepers' failure to stop Srebrenica, the 2017 conviction, and the 2021 appeal ruling remain on record; the death does not alter those judgments.
Survivor and memorial groups called for the truth to outlive him, while Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik called the death a 'murder' and Serbian ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj said Mladic had been 'killed.' No transfer to Serbia had been completed at the time of death.