Bosnia Fugitive Is Hero to Some, Butcher to Others

Ratko Mladic, center, in 1994. Emil Vas/Associated Press Buy a copy of this picture. BOZINOVICI, Bosnia and Herzegovina — Ratko Mladic, accused in Europe’s worst massacre since World War II and now the most wanted fugitive for the atrocities in the Balkan wars, grew up in this poor, remote mountain village that is blanketed with crows. Here, as in many places where Serbs live, his military prowess, his undeniable suffering and the imponderable scale of the crimes he is accused of have made him as much a national myth as a man. He is a weathered survivor, his character forged by poverty, the slaying of his father and the suicide of his daughter — with his own favorite pistol. “His mother had no job, no pension, no husband, so from a young age Ratko had to fight to survive,” said his cousin Stretko Mladic. “But he was strong.... [read full story]