Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic dies in custody

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander serving a life sentence for genocide, has died in The Hague, as confirmed by UN officials on Thursday. Known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," Mladic was convicted for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where at least 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were executed, and for the prolonged siege of Sarajevo that resulted in approximately 10,000 deaths. He was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of participating in a criminal conspiracy alongside Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic to enforce "ethnic cleansing" in the region.

Mladic, who had been suffering from serious illness for months, died shortly after the ICTY rejected requests from his family and the Serbian government to move him to a military hospital in Belgrade for medical treatment. Following his death, Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic stated that the government intends to provide Mladic with military and state honors. Officials are currently awaiting confirmation from authorities in The Hague regarding the repatriation of his remains to Serbia. The 1992–1995 Bosnian war, in which Mladic played a central role, claimed 100,000 lives and displaced over 2 million people.