The monstrous crimes of Ratko Mladic, the 'Butcher of Bosnia'

Image source, Corbis/Getty ImagesBySam WoodhousePublished41 minutes agoRatko Mladić, who has died at the age of 84, was the bull-necked "Butcher of Bosnia".As Commander of the Bosnian Serb army, he oversaw a brutal campaign of "ethnic cleansing" as Yugoslavia splintered in the 1990s.The phrase was a chilling euphemism for the massacre of tens of thousands of men, women and children - in pursuit of what he saw as a chance to fulfil the historic destiny of Greater Serbia. It was a goal he pursued with single-minded determination and studied brutality - and it made him responsible for the bloodiest atrocities Europe has witnessed since Hitler's Third Reich.His fanaticism made him a hero to his people. He told them their Muslim neighbours planned to "impale Serbs, burn them alive, crucify them and put out their eyes".He led the long and bloody siege of Sarajevo; killing and maiming its citizens in a daily hail of shells and sniper-fire. When his troops overran the UN-declared safe area of Srebrenica, he promised they were safe. Later, 8,000 men and boys were led to unmarked graves.He and his political counterpart, Radovan Karadžić, ripped Bosnia apart - committing acts of genocide and vicious crimes against humanity.The barrel-chested warlord displayed no remorse, giving relatives of his victims a cheery thumbs-up at his eventual trial in the Hague."Borders are drawn in blood," he is reported to have said. "And states marked out with graves."Image source, Sygma via Getty ImagesImage caption, A gravedigger buries civilians killed in the siege of Sarajevo in 1993Ratko Mladić was born on 12 March 1942 in a small mountain village near Sarajevo, then part of the German-controlled Independent State of Croatia - although he always claimed to be a year younger.Two years later, his father was killed fighting for Tito's partisans against Nazi-backed Croat nationalists. Mladić was brought up in the new, post-war construct of Yugoslavia. After a short apprenticeship as a tinsmith, he chose a military career.He graduated from officer school in 1965. Proving himself an ambitious and capable soldier, he rose rapidly through the ranks, commanding army units in Macedonia and Kosovo.Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesImage caption, General Mladić's troops laid siege to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, for 1,425 days. Thousands were killed by rocket and sniper fireTito's death in 1980 was the beginning of the end for Yugoslavia - always an uneasy confederation of opposing factions, competing nationalisms and simmering hatred.In June 1991, Croatia declared independence. Mladić was sent in with the Yugoslav army in an effort to re-impose control. He gained a reputation for courage bordering on recklessness, ever-present in frontline trenches and personally leading expeditions to clear mines. His men loved him for it, their devotion bordering on religious.As the war spilled over into Bosnia, his force switched uniforms - pledging support for the breakaway Republika Srpska. He saw the Muslim population as invaders - the result of an ancient occupation by Ottoman Turks.Image source, Corbis/Getty ImagesImage caption, A father kneels at his son's grave in SarajevoMladić vowed to right what he considered a historical injustice, drive out the intruders and then build the ethnically pure nation of his dreams.So began the siege of Sarajevo - the Bosnian capital defended by a rag-tag multi-ethnic force of Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims). With his troops dug in on surrounding hillsides, the blockade lasted 1,425 days. It was the longest city siege in the savage history of modern warfare.On 22 July 1993, nearly 4,000 shells rained down on its terrified people. By the end of the siege, 13,000 were dead from shell-fire or a sniper's bullet; almost every building in the city either damaged or destroyed. Image caption, Ratko Mladić (L) with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan KaradžićIn the villages around the capital, legions of men were killed or carted off to prison camps; thousands of women were mercilessly raped.A communiqué from Gen Mladić's headquarters captured his attitude. "Shoot at slow intervals until I order you to stop," it said. "Target Muslim neighbourhoods - not many Serbs live there. Shell them until they are on the edge of madness."Revelling in the power of his army, he gave orders by radio, the messages deliberately left unscrambled so they would be picked up and broadcast worldwide."Burn their brains," he screamed as his soldiers took aim at one enclave, telling them to follow his orders "as if given by God."Image source, Sygma via Getty ImagesImage caption, Emaciated prisoners at a Bosnian Serb camp in 1992. Later, some of the survivors would attend the trial of Ratko MladićAt weekends, he would visit his family, his wife and two children kept safe in Belgrade. They would play board games, the conversation deliberately avoiding politics. But his 23-year-old daughter, Ana, had fallen in love with a young doctor and human rights activist. The doctor gave her an ultimatum: renounce your father or never see me again.Torn between dreams of love and bonds of family, Ana took her father's favourite gun from its display case. Moments later, she pulled the trigger. Mladić struggled to come to terms with her suicide, preferring wild conspiracy theories which blamed the tragedy on everyone but himself.Finally, in 1995, Nato lost patience. It launched fighter attacks and cruise missile strikes on Mladić's positions around Sarajevo, most of them with devastating effect. The siege was broken but his murderous campaign to cleanse the country was far from over.That summer, tens of thousands of Bosniak civilians were gathered in Srebrenica: a small mountain town in eastern Bosnia. They were under the protection of the United Nations, which had declared it a "safe area".Bosnian Serb troops bombarded them with heavy shells and rockets. Five days later, Mladić strutted into town surrounded by TV camera crews.Image source, Sygma via Getty ImagesImage caption, More than eight thousand men and boys were killed by troops in Srebrenica. The troops were under the command of General Mladić.In the main square, he handed out sweets, patted children on the head and assured them all would be fine. They were not fooled. The handful of Dutch peacekeepers did nothing as men were shot and women were raped.There followed the single most heinous act on European soil since World War Two. Mladić's troops rounded up every Bosniak male they could find, marched them to remote sites and murdered them on an industrial scale.In just a few days, 8,000 men and boys were tied up, blindfolded and shot. Some of them were as young as twelve, others in their late seventies. All of them were cruelly pushed into mass, unmarked graves.Image source, Gamma-Rapho Images via Getty ImagesImage caption, General Mladić leads his troops in 1994It was genocide: a black moment in European history and the UN's darkest hour. It was a crime that took a high degree of organisation; the people had been promised UN protection and all this had happened right under its nose.Later, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, wrote that responsibility lay "first and foremost with those who planned and carried out the massacre". However, the international community had "made serious errors of judgement, rooted in a philosophy of impartiality", he added.Mladić was accused of war crimes. America offered $5m for information leading to his capture. A year later, Bosnian President Biljana Plavsic buckled to international pressure and dismissed him. Image source, Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesImage caption, Ratko Mladić is photographed in a military helicopter during the Bosnian War in 1994But it would be 14 years before he stood trial at the Hague.He returned to Belgrade, enjoying the support and protection of President Slobodan Milošević. Mladić lived openly; deer-hunting with friends, eating in swanky restaurants and even attending football matches.He remained a hero to swathes of his countrymen, who saw in him the Serbian martial spirit and an echo of the past glories of their nation. They were determined not to give him to an International Court. The president even established a military force dedicated to Mladić's personal protection.Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Family members mourn a victim of the killings in Srebrenica. Many of the thousands left in unmarked graves were exhumed for proper burial.The net began to tighten when, in October 2000, Slobodan Milošević was himself arrested and later delivered to the Hague. International politics was beginning to bite, Serbia's entry to the European Union held up by its protection of the fugitives.That night, Mladić fled; no longer guaranteed the sanctuary of his state. He spent the next decade moving from safe-house to safe-house, first protected by a loyal team of bodyguards and, when they dwindled away, by his family.In July 2008, his former political ally, Radovan Karadžić - now a long-bearded faith-healer - was arrested on a bus in Belgrade. The new Serbian regime delivered him to the International Court, with which it had formalised co-operation. General Mladić was next.Three years later, he was found. The police tailed his children to a remote, squalid farmhouse where they stood alone in the courtyard for no apparent reason. Too nervous to meet them, Mladić was watching through a window. When the security forces went in, they found a dishevelled 69-year-old man who had suffered several strokes.Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, An unrepentant Mladić gives a thumbs-up at his trial at the International Court of Justice at the HagueThe trial itself took four years. The court sat for more than 500 days, heard from nearly 600 witnesses, and examined nearly 10,000 bits of evidence. Due process was followed, although few doubted what the verdict would be.Ratko Mladić was shown giving orders to his troops immediately before the Srebrenica massacre and convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the "customs of war".He entered the courtroom with a smile and a thumbs-up to the cameras but exploded with anger at the verdicts. Screaming that it was "all lies", he was forcibly removed. His sentence meant he would die in prison.Among the many victims and their relatives present at his trial was Fikret Alic, a prisoner famously filmed in a skeletal state in a Bosnian Serb concentration camp in 1992. "Justice has been done," he said. "The war criminal has been convicted". Others simply dissolved in tears.Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesImage caption, A Sarajevo mural in 2023. Despite his crimes, Ratko Mladić remains popular with some Serbian nationalistsBut the widespread joy at the verdicts was far from universal. Some Bosniaks were disappointed he had not been convicted of crimes outside Sarajevo and Srebrenica. And many fellow Serbs reacted with rage.One leading politician in Republika Srpska condemned the trial as a plot to demonise his people, and called for them to "forever erase every mention" of the court proceedings from school history books.In 2024, the court turned down his application to serve the rest of his sentence in Serbia. Having suffered heart attacks and strokes, Mladić claimed that his health would be better protected in his home country. His lawyers continued to reapply unsuccessfully for his release, on the grounds that he had only months to live.Both Serbia and Russia have supported his legal appeals. In Bosnia, by contrast, an opposition politician was sentenced to three years in prison for "glorifying" Karadžić and Mladić in January 2026.For many of his people, the "Butcher of Bosnia" was just a simple soldier and the protector of their way of life. But he will be remembered by Bosniaks and most of the international community as a murderous thug who disgraced the European stage.In Bosnia, Muslims and Serbs live side-by-side in uneasy cohabitation. The violent nationalist war waged by Mladić and Radovan Karadžić in the 1990s may be over, but tension still exists.Related topicsBosnia-HerzegovinaSerbia