Ratko Mladic, a former Bosnian-Serb general who, during the 1990s Balkan wars, orchestrated Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II and earned the nickname “Butcher of Bosnia,” has died at the age of 83,
was held responsible for Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, the killing of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, has died. He was 83.
Serbian state media reported the Mladic’s death on Thursday, The New York Times reported. He died in the United Nations detention centre in The Hague, according to Reuters.
He was serving a life sentence for genocide for his actions during the Bosnian wars, which was contested between 1992 and 1995, the international news outlet reported.
Mladic was held responsible for the killing of approximately 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, the Times reported.
The former general eluded authorities for nearly 16 years until he was captured on May 26, 2011, in a farming village north of the Serbian capital of Belgrade, according to the newspaper.
Mladic was accused of masterminding a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Bosnia’s non-Serb population during the early 1990s, CNN reported.
Breaking News: Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general during the Balkan wars of the 1990s who was convicted in the killing of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, has died. He was 83. https://t.co/a71PgA09sL
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 27, 2026
for masterminding a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Bosnia’s non-Serb population in the early 1990s.
He was convicted in 2017 by an international tribunal on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Times reported.
According to the newspaper, Mladic was an officer in the Yugoslav People’s Army and led the army of the Bosnian Serbs when the Balkan wars broke out in the 1990s.
Before the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica massacre, he promised to avenge the conquest of Serbia centuries before by the Ottoman Muslim Turks, the Times reported.
Over 10 days, his soldiers hunted down, captured and executed approximately 8,000 Bosnian Muslims. Women were raped. Serb forces buried the remains, dug them up again and scattered them in distant mass graves in an organized effort to hide evidence of war crimes, according to the newspaper.
Last week, Mladic’s attorneys filed a request for an early release on humanitarian grounds last week, CNN reported. The attorneys quoted the detention unit’s doctors, who said that the former soldier’s overall condition had declined and that he could die “at any time,” according to the cable news outlet.
The request was denied.
©2026 Cox Media Group
