Ratko Mladić, ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ Convicted of Genocide, Dies at 84

Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian Serb general who was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in atrocities during the Bosnian war, has died at 84.

Known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” Mladić was a key player in the fighting that devastated the Balkans in the early 1990s in connection with the breakup of Yugoslavia. During the war in Bosnia, civilians of all ethnicities — Muslims, Serbs and Croats — became victims of horrible crimes, but Bosnian Muslims suffered the greatest losses, with thousands slaughtered by Serb forces.

Mladić oversaw the brutal, years-long siege of Sarajevo, and commanded the troops who massacred more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica — considered one of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II. In 2017, he was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and sentenced to life in prison. His death came nine years into his sentence.

In 2019, FRONTLINE released an in-depth documentary chronicling Mladić’s five-year trial at the Hague, which was part of the first international war crimes tribunal since Nuremberg.

With behind-the-scenes access to the prosecution and defense teams, as well as to witnesses from both sides who came to give evidence, The Trial of Ratko Mladić is a profound record of what led to Mladić’s historic conviction, which was upheld in 2021.

From producers Henry Singer and Rob Miller, the documentary is also a deep exploration of a country at odds over its bloody past — and an intimate look at the victims left behind, who remained haunted by what their families endured.

“I carry this heavy burden that I feel is a part of me as a survivor, as a witness, to tell the truth,” Elvedin Pasic, who testified in the trial about what happened when Bosnian Serb forces attacked his village, told FRONTLINE. “I felt like I owe to my dad and my uncle and others who are missing throughout Bosnia.”