Ratko Mladic, convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal, dies in prison hospital

Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who was serving a life sentence for war crimes committed during Bosnia and Herzegovina's 1992-95 war has died, a United Nations official said.

Serbian state broadcaster RTS reported on Thursday that he died in a prison hospital in the Hague, after suffering several strokes.

A family member of Mladic, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, confirmed the reports to the Associated Press and said Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, was on the way to the Hague.

The International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Mladic of charges including crimes against humanity and genocide in 2017, handing him a life sentence. The verdict was confirmed on appeal in 2021.

Commenting on Mladic's death on Thursday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed his support for the war criminal's victims.

"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.

'The butcher of Bosnia'

Mladic was held responsible for his role in the 1992 to 1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including July 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

The slaughter, the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II, saw him named the "Butcher of Bosnia."

Under Mladic's command, Bosnian Serb forces besieged Sarajevo and other towns, operated detention camps for non-Serbs and enemy soldiers, and systematically killed prisoners.

Former UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein described him as "the epitome of evil" after his conviction.

"This is all lies, you are all liars," he shouted when he was sentenced to life in prison in 2017.

On Monday, Serbia's justice minister, Nenad Vujic, asked for Mladic to be transferred to a Belgrade military hospital, warning that his death "could come at any time."

Srebrenica massacre discredited international community

Born in Bosnia in 1942, Mladic was a former Yugoslav army officer who rose to command the Bosnian Serb army during the 1992-95 war.

A hardline nationalist, he portrayed the conflict as a historic struggle against Ottoman rule and celebrated the 1995 capture of Srebrenica.

After the capture of the city, Mladic ordered the evacuation of women, children and the elderly but said all men of fighting age are taken prisoner.

In the following days more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys are systematically butchered by the Bosnian Serb forces and their bodies dumped in mass graves.

In 2022 The Netherlands apologized for the Dutch peacekeepers' failure to prevent the killings.

Mladic himself have never repented.