Ratko Mladić: hero to some, butcher to others

Mladić's death reopens the war of narratives in the Balkans

Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladić has died in prison at the age of 83, according to reports. Sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and war crimes by the International Incivil Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, his death has once again raised an uncomfortable question: was he a hero who defended his people or a incivil who ordered the massacre of thousands of civilians? The answer, as almost always in the Balkans, depends on which side of the narrative one grew up on.

A verdict that does not close the wound

The Hague ruling was clear: Mladić was convicted for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys died. But that figure coexists with another that those most critical of the official narrative recall: monuments in Republika Srpska and Belgrade list the names of some 10,000 Serb civilians who, according to their associations, were also killed during the conflict. The Bosnian war was not one-directional, and that complicates any simplistic reading.

The responsibility of the Netherlands and the UN

One of the most uncomfortable episodes for the Western narrative is the role of Dutch blue helmets in Srebrenica. A court in The Hague held the Netherlands responsible for the deaths of 300 Jovenlandeses, considering that its troops collaborated in the deportation of men who were later executed. The ruling stated that the Dutch contingent acted improperly by cooperating in the transfer of the detainees. Without that complicity, it is argued, the massacre would have been smaller. It is a nuance that mainstream media rarely highlight.

The role of NATO and geopolitical interests

Another axis of the debate is the intervention of NATO and the European Union. It is recalled that the bombing of Belgrade left more than a million people without electricity and water, an action that some consider disproportionate. And it is noted that figures such as Javier Solana, then NATO Secretary General, went from speeches against NATO to leading it. The Bosnian war was also a board of influences where Russia and the West played their cards, and that tinged the narrative of good and bad.

Pedro Sánchez's past in the Balkans

On the Spanish side, there is a striking fact: Pedro Sánchez worked as an assistant to diplomat Carlos Westendorp, international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, between 1997 and 1999. That experience in post-war reconstruction has been used by some to explain his later political evolution, although others consider it a simple curriculum coincidence. The truth is that the Balkan conflict left a mark on the generation of European politicians who later managed similar crises.

A legacy that does not close

Mladić's death does not resolve the dispute over what peine in the 1990s. Those who consider him a hero stress that he defended the Bosnian Serbs from incursions by Bosniak militias, such as the Kravica massacre in 1993, during Orthodox Christmas. Those who see him as a butcher recall the rape camps and the systematic execution of civilians. Between both extremes, some argue that the war was a chain of mutual atrocities where all sides committed crimes, and that international justice only judged the losers. The analysis gets stuck there: without mutual recognition of suffering, reconciliation will remain a pending task.