For many of his people, the "Butcher of Bosnia" was just a simple soldier and the protector of their way of life.

In Bosnia, Muslims and Serbs live side- The violent nationalist war waged For related coverage, explore our detailed analysis on Technology and Digital Systems.

Monstrous Crimes Ratko Details and Timeline

Ratko Mladić, who has passed away at the age of 84, was the bull-necked "Butcher of Bosnia".

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.

Monstrous Crimes Ratko Next Steps and Impact

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

He led the long and bloody siege of Sarajevo; killing and maiming its citizens in a daily hail of shells and sniper-fire.

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When his troops overran the UN-declared safe area of Srebrenica, he promised they were safe. Later, 8,000 men and boys were led to unmarked graves.

He and his political counterpart, Radovan Karadžić, ripped Bosnia apart - committing acts of genocide and vicious crimes against humanity.

The barrel-chested warlord displayed no remorse, giving relatives of his victims a cheery thumbs-up at his eventual trial in the Hague.

"Borders are drawn in blood," he is reported to have stated. "And states marked out with graves." A gravedigger buries civilians killed in the siege of Sarajevo in 1993 Ratko Mladić was born on 12 March 1942 in a small mountain village near Sarajevo, then part of the German-controlled Independent State of Croatia - although he always asserted to be a year younger.

Two years later, his father was killed fighting for Tito's partisans against Nazi-backed Croat nationalists.

Mladić was brought up in the new, post-war construct of Yugoslavia. After a short apprenticeship as a tinsmith, he chose a military career.

He graduated from officer school in 1965. Proving himself an ambitious and capable soldier, he rose rapidly through the ranks, commanding army units in Macedonia and Kosovo.