Mladić's death splits the Balkans: butcher to some, hero to others

Ratko Mladić, known worldwide as the "Butcher of Bosnia," died in prison on Thursday while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. As commander of Bosnian Serb forces during the 1990s breakup of Yugoslavia, he is held responsible for the deaths of an estimated 100,000 people. His most notorious crime was the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where at least 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed in what has been recognised as genocide.

Thirty-one years after the Dayton agreement ended the Bosnian war and the 1,425-day siege of Sarajevo, Mladić's legacy still divides the region. More than 11,000 people, including around 2,000 children, were killed during the siege of Sarajevo. Across the wider conflict, 20,000 to 50,000 women and girls were raped and 2.7 million people were displaced.

Džemil Hodžić, whose 16-year-old brother Amel was killed by a sniper while playing tennis in Sarajevo in 1995, described Mladić as a figure of horror for children living through the siege, directly tied to the killing of family and friends. Croatian journalist Zoran Kusovać, who met Mladić several times during the war, recalled the general boasting that he held Sarajevo "in the palm of his hand" and could destroy it at will.

The Serbian government in Belgrade announced Mladić would be buried with full military and state honours, drawing international condemnation. Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik and ultranationalist politician Vojislav Šešelj both praised Mladić as a defender of the Serbian people.

The office of UN secretary general António Guterres urged officials to refrain from denying the seriousness of the Srebrenica genocide or glorifying war crimes. Emir Suljagić, director of the Srebrenica Memorial and one of the few men to escape the town, said Mladić's death changes none of the historical facts, and that the task now is to ensure truth and memory are not allowed to fade with him.