As the war criminal spoke: "Whenever I head past Sarajevo, I drop by, kill someone along the way"

"Therefore, we cannot cleanse, nor can we have a sieve to sift [people] so that only Serbs remain or Serbs perish, and the others leave. Well, that is... That cannot... I do not know how Mr Karadzic and Mr Krajisnik will explain that to the world. People, That is genocide."

These are the words of Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS), spoken in 1992 at a session of the Assembly of Bosnian Serbs during a debate on strategic goals.

Mladic died on August 27, 2026, in the United Nations detention facility in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence.

On June 8, 2021, Mladic was conclusively sentenced to life imprisonment for the genocide in Srebrenica, persecution, extermination, murder, deportations, and forcible transfer of Bosniaks and Croats, the spreading of terror among the civilians of Sarajevo, unlawful attacks on civilians, and the taking of United Nations peacekeepers as hostages.

He was not found guilty on the count of the indictment relating to genocide in six municipalities: Foca, Vlasenica, Kljuc, Sanski Most, Kotor-Varos, and Prijedor, but was convicted for crimes committed in those and other municipalities under other counts of the indictment.

Entry into Srebrenica and open threats

After VRS forces entered Srebrenica on July 11, 1995, Mladic stated before television cameras:

"Here we are, on July 11, 1995, in Serb Srebrenica. On the eve of another great Serb holiday, we present this city to the Serb people. And finally, the moment has come after the rebellion against the dahias to take revenge on the Turks in this area."

A day later, in an intercepted conversation with an unnamed VRS officer, he said:

"We will evacuate everyone, both those who want to and those who don't."

At meetings with representatives of the Bosniak population at the Fontana Hotel on July 11 and 12, he issued an even more direct threat:

"You can survive or perish."

Documents preceding the genocide

According to the interactive narrative "Srebrenica: Genocide in Eight Acts", what happened in Srebrenica in July 1995 was foreshadowed by documents adopted as early as 1992 and subsequently implemented gradually in the years that followed.

The Assembly of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at its 14th session held on May 16, 1992, adopted six strategic goals of the Serb people. The third goal entailed the removal of the Drina as "a border separating Serbian states", the Republic of Serbia and the Republika Srpska.

On November 19, 1992, Mladic signed Directive No. 4, which defined the method of implementing that goal:

"Inflict the greatest possible losses on the enemy and force them to leave the areas of Birac, Zepa, and Gorazde together with the Muslim population."

During the winter of 1992/1993, as a result of military operations and persecution, tens of thousands of residents from ethnically cleansed Bosniak settlements in the Drina valley sought refuge in the enclaves of Srebrenica, Zepa, and Gorazde.

Due to the severe humanitarian situation in Srebrenica, which housed approximately 40,000 refugees, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 819 on April 16, 1993, declaring Srebrenica the first "safe area" in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On March 8, 1995, Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic signed Directive No. 7, which ordered "the creation of conditions of total insecurity, unlivability, and hopelessness for the further survival and life of the inhabitants in Srebrenica and Zepa."

In early July 1995, the command of the VRS Drina Corps issued an order for Operation Krivaja '95, the code name for the attack on Srebrenica. VRS forces reached the outskirts of the city by July 10, and entered the UN safe area the following day. In the days that followed, genocide was committed against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica.

"I drop by, I kill someone along the way"

Mladic was also conclusively convicted for the campaign of sniper operations and shelling of Sarajevo, the aim of which was to spread terror among the civilian population.

One of his statements in August 1993 was captured on camera by Canadian Serb Milan Lesic:

"Whenever I head past Sarajevo, I drop by, I kill someone along the way. That is why this traffic was cut off for Sarajevo /unintelligible/ sniper. I take action, I finish off the Turks, f**k 'em."

Mladic's statements, along with military documents, intercepted conversations, and recordings, were used as evidence in proceedings before the Hague Tribunal.