Ratko Mladić: The monstrous crimes of the 'Butcher of Bosnia' - BBC News

The Bosnian Serb commander led a campaign of ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian conflict.

Image source, Corbis/Getty ImagesBySam WoodhousePublished1 hour agoRatko Mladić, who has died at the age of 84, was the bull-necked "Butcher of Bosnia".

As Commander of the Bosnian Serb army, he oversaw a brutal campaign of "ethnic cleansing" as Yugoslavia splintered in the 1990s.

The phrase was a chilling euphemism for the massacre of tens of thousands of men, women and children - in pursuit of what he saw as a chance to fulfil the historic destiny of Greater Serbia.

It was a goal he pursued with single-minded determination and studied brutality - and it made him responsible for the bloodiest atrocities Europe has witnessed since Hitler's Third Reich.

His fanaticism made him a hero to his people. He told them their Muslim neighbours planned to "impale Serbs, burn them alive, crucify them and put out their eyes".