Ratko Mladić, 'Butcher of the Balkans,' dies at 84

Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb military chief infamously dubbed the "Butcher of the Balkans," has died at 84. He was serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during the Bosnian War.

Mladić's name remains inextricably linked to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where he personally oversaw the segregation of victims before approximately 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were executed. He also commanded the brutal 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo, which inflicted immense suffering on the city's inhabitants.

As a former colonel in the Yugoslav Army, Mladić was promoted to general in 1992 to lead the Army of Republika Srpska, the military force of the Bosnian Serb secessionists. Despite his political role, he was primarily known as a ruthless and effective soldier. Though reportedly disliking Serbian nationalist "folklore," he was determined to use any means necessary to oppose Croatian and Bosniak secessionism, aiming to preserve what remained of Yugoslavia and redraw its borders into a "Greater Serbia."