Srebrenica mother: 'I wish Mladic lived longer to suffer'

A Bosnian mother who lost three sons in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre has spoken out following the death of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general whose forces carried out the killings.

Mejra Djogaz, speaking at the Srebrenica memorial site on Thursday, said she wished Mladic had lived longer to suffer. "I wish he lived longer to suffer and to be in pain, but he left this world," she said.

Mladic died on Thursday while serving a life sentence for war crimes, according to UN officials. He was 84. The UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted him in 2017 of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica — the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

Djogaz lost three sons in the massacre: Zudi, born in 1972, Munib, born in 1974, and Omar, born in 1976.

Mladic, a former communist officer who became a nationalist warlord, commanded Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-1995 war. He was known for his ruthless tactics, including the siege of Sarajevo, where snipers and artillery killed civilians, and the establishment of concentration camps for non-Serb detainees.

He had been on the run for years before his arrest in 2011. At his trial, he remained defiant, shouting at judges when the life sentence was handed down. Many Serbs still view him as a patriot, and he never expressed remorse for his actions.

The war in Bosnia left more than 100,000 people dead and displaced over a million others.