Belgrade (AFP) – Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief convicted of war crimes for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, died in hospital on Thursday, according to a United Nations international tribunal.

Mladic, who had suffered several strokes in recent months, was serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity after overseeing the Srebrenica slaughter, Europe's worst act of bloodshed since World War II.

His conviction for the wartime killings as the former Yugoslavia descended into carnage after the fall of communism led the media to dub him the "Butcher of Bosnia".

The 1992-1995 war left around 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million displaced.

Mladic was the military face of a brutal trio, led on the political side by ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

Serbian state officials and Mladic's family had appealed for his release due to his failing health, but the Hague tribunal rejected those calls.

A representative of the Mothers of Srebrenica victims' association, reacting to the death of Mladic, told AFP that his name would always "symbolise genocide".

"That will never be erased from his name," said Sehida Abdurahmanovic, who believes her missing brother was among those killed in Srebrenica.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he stood "in solidarity with the victims, survivors and their families who suffered the crimes for which Mr Mladic was found guilty", his spokesman told reporters.

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