Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general infamous for orchestrating the 1995 massacre of at least 8,000 Muslims in the UN-designated "safe area" of Srebrenica, died on Thursday, August 27, 2026, in United Nations custody at the age of 84.

Mladic, nicknamed the "Butcher of Bosnia," was serving a life sentence for genocide related to his role in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. He had been detained in the UN detention center since his arrest in 2011 and had experienced declining health in recent years, including repeated hospitalizations.

The Srebrenica massacre, considered Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, was the culmination of a war lasting over three years. During this conflict, Mladic's nationalist Serb army relentlessly shelled the besieged capital Sarajevo, resulting in approximately 10,000 deaths. The victims from Srebrenica were buried in mass graves, some of which were later exhumed and relocated to conceal evidence.

The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) determined that the goal behind these actions was "ethnic cleansing"—the forcible expulsion of Bosnian Muslims, Croats, and other non-Serbs to establish a Greater Serbia.

Mladic consistently denied the court's authority, stating in a 2014 ICTY hearing, "I do not recognise this court." When sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017, he reportedly shouted in protest.

Munira Subasic, who lost her son and husband to Bosnian Serb forces during the Srebrenica takeover, described Mladic as "a symbol of all horrible crimes that happened during the war - our girls were raped, and boys killed, only because they were Muslim."

According to his son, although official documents listed Mladic's birthdate as March 12, 1942, he was actually born on March 8, 1943.

In 2004, NATO reported that Mladic had celebrated with comrades at his former bunker in Han Pijesak, Bosnia.

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