Mladic: the 'Butcher of Bosnia'

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army chief who was taken to hospital Thursday after falling ill during his war crimes trial, is blamed for the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II. Dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia", Mladic is on trial before the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in Bosnia's 1992-1995 war that claimed some 100,000 lives. The 70-year-old was in command at the time of the Srebrenica massacre, as well as the terrorising of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during 44 months of shelling and sniper fire that killed 10,000 people. Accused of masterminding a plan to rid multi-ethnic Bosnia of Croats and Muslims, Mladic could face life in prison if convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He was arrested in May 2011 at a relative's house in northeastern Serbia after spending 16 years on the run. No longer a bull-necked soldier, the thin and grey Mladic has since had health scares, prompting groups representing the families of the Srebrenica victims to voice concern he might die before his trial is concluded. His latest trip to hospital comes only days after his trial in The Hague had resumed Monday after a suspension since May 17 because of prosecution irregularities. Prosecution witness David Harland, a former UN political advisor during the war, was giving evidence Thursday when Judge Alphons Orie noticed something was amiss with Mladic and halted the hearing. "Mladic was feeling unwell and he was taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure," ICTY spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic, told AFP. Mladic has had prior health issues, with his lawer Branko Lukic saying that he suffered three strokes and a heart attack in the past. Last year he was also treated for pneumonia and suffers from kidney stones. Born on March 12, 1942 at Bozinovici in eastern Bosnia, Mladic was two years old when his father was killed by Croatia's World War II fascist authorities, the Ustasha. In June 1991, as Yugoslavia crumbled and war broke out, Mladic, then a colonel in the Yugoslav National Army, was given the task of organising the Serb-dominated army from the Serb rebels' stronghold of Knin in Croatia. The following year, Mladic, now a general, was made commander of Bosnian Serb forces and fought to link up Serb-held lands in Bosnia's east and west. Mladic was indicted for war crimes after his troops overran the UN-declared safe area of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia on July 11, 1995. He was present as some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were led away to their deaths. The stocky warrior was the epitome of Serb defiance -- at the start of the war, he accused Muslims of the worst horrors and was quoted as saying they "impale Serbs, burn them alive, crucify them and put out their eyes". Chillingly, he is also alleged to have said: "Borders are always drawn in blood and states marked out with graves." His message -- that he and his men were fighting in the name of "Greater Serbia" -- made him a hero to many of his people and a one-time favourite of late Serbian and Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic. When he refused to bow to Western demands to withdraw his heavy weapons from around Sarajevo in September 1995, after a three and a half years long siege, it took the combined might of NATO warplanes and cruise missiles to blow apart his military advantage. Karadzic sacked Mladic but was forced to reinstate him. However, he finally became too much of a liability and was sacked by the Bosnian Serb government in 1997 following growing international pressure over his war crimes indictment. He became a reclusive figure in post-war Bosnia. For a long time he was holed up in his main command bunker at Han Pijesak, calmly defying NATO attempts to arrest him as he regularly threatened to bathe in their blood any soldiers who attempted to detain him. He also often came to Belgrade, where his family lived, until he moved to the Serbian capital. Until Milosevic's ouster in October 2000, Mladic lived openly in Belgrade, visiting cafes, restaurants and football matches. But his popularity was waning among politicians in Serbia, increasingly concerned that failure to transfer Mladic to the UN war crimes court would mean further delay in the country's joining the European Union. Instead of roaming freely around Belgrade in a disguise, like Karadzic had done, Mladic then vanished, finding refuge in army barracks. As the Serbian authorities cracked down on Mladic's support network, he became more and more reliant on his extended family to hide him, which eventually spelled his 2011 downfall. Married to Bosiljka, Mladic has a son, Darko, and two grandchildren. His daughter Ana committed suicide in Belgrade in 1994 at age 23, reportedly with her father's favourite pistol, having been unable to cope with the burden of accusations over Mladic's wartime crimes.