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Ratko Mladic, ex-Bosnian Serb warlord who oversaw atrocities, has died at 84
Confirmed
BELGRADE, Serbia — Ratko Mladic, the bullish Bosnian Serb general whose forces besieged the Bosnian capital for several years in the 1990s and carried out the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, died Thursday while serving a life sentence for his crimes, U.N. officials said.
But while mothers of victims "are still carrying the pain in our souls" 31 years later, "we are still listening to denials, we are still listening to how Ratko Mladic was a hero for the Serbs," she said. Mladic died at a hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, U.N. court officials said.
The Srebrenica survivors said one image forever will be imprinted in their minds: Mladic handing out candy to Muslim children who had been rounded up on the town's square and reassuring them that everything would be all right — even patting one child on the head.
A Mladic relative who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation confirmed the reports and said Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, was on his way to the Dutch city. "I am sorry that he died and that he did not suffer for a little while longer, that he didn't wait for more and dream about the eyes of our children," she said.
"The time has come... for revenge against Turks in these regions," Mladic said after taking over Srebrenica. "He was murdered there, in those dungeons," said Janko Seslija, a former Bosnian Serb soldier.
"Today, a major war criminal died, the criminal of the Balkans," Subasic said. Munira Subasic, from the Mothers of Srebrenica group, said she had mixed feelings about Mladic's death and deplored that Mladic's crimes are still being denied by many Bosnian Serbs.
What's confirmed
- BELGRADE, Serbia — Ratko Mladic, the bullish Bosnian Serb general whose forces besieged the Bosnian capital for several years in the 1990s and carried out the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, died Thursday wh
- But while mothers of victims "are still carrying the pain in our souls" 31 years later, "we are still listening to denials, we are still listening to how Ratko Mladic was a hero for the Serbs," she said.
- The Srebrenica survivors said one image forever will be imprinted in their minds: Mladic handing out candy to Muslim children who had been rounded up on the town's square and reassuring them that everything would be all
- A Mladic relative who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation confirmed the reports and said Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, was on his way to the Dutch city.
- "Today, a major war criminal died, the criminal of the Balkans," Subasic said.
What's still developing
- BELGRADE, Serbia — Ratko Mladic, the bullish Bosnian Serb general whose forces besieged the Bosnian capital for several years in the 1990s and carried out the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, died…
- Mladic died at a hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, U.N. court officials said.
- A Mladic relative who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation confirmed the reports and said Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, was on his way to the Dutch city.
- Munira Subasic, from the Mothers of Srebrenica group, said she had mixed feelings about Mladic's death and deplored that Mladic's crimes are still being denied by many Bosnian Serbs.
- "Today, a major war criminal died, the criminal of the Balkans," Subasic said.
- But while mothers of victims "are still carrying the pain in our souls" 31 years later, "we are still listening to denials, we are still listening to how Ratko Mladic was a hero for the Serbs," she said.
- "I am sorry that he died and that he did not suffer for a little while longer, that he didn't wait for more and dream about the eyes of our children," she said.
- "He was murdered there, in those dungeons," said Janko Seslija, a former Bosnian Serb soldier.