Timeline: Ratko Mladic

1945 His father, a military leader of the Bosnian Serbs, was killed while leading a partisan attack on the home village of Croatian WWII puppet state leader Ante Pavelic.

1961 He entered the Military Academy in Belgrade.

1965 Upon graduation, he began his career as a second lieutenant. He went on to command a platoon, a battalion and a brigade.

August 1989 He was promoted to head of the Education Department of the Third Military District of Skopje.

June 1991 He became Deputy Commander of the Pristina Corps in Kosovo and soon after commander of the 9th Corps of the Yugoslav People’s Army, leading it against Croatian forces in the town of Knin.

October 1991 Mladic became Major General of the Yugoslav People’s Army which, under his command, fought in the Croatian war.

August 1991 He helped Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic’s paramilitary forces to besiege the village of Kijevo.

April 1992 Mladic was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel General.

May 2, 1992 A month after the Bosnian Republic announced its independence, Mladic and his generals blockaded the city of Sarajevo, beginning the four-year siege of the city.

May 9, 1992 He assumed the post of Chief of Staff/Deputy Commander of the Second Military District Headquarters of the Yugoslav People’s Army in Sarajevo. The following day, Mladic took command of the Second Military District Headquarters of the Yugoslav People’s Army.

May 12, 1992 In response to Bosnia’s secession from Yugoslavia, the separatist Bosnian Serb parliament voted to create the Army of Republika Srpska, appointing Mladic as Commander of the Main Staff.

March 1994 His daughter, Ana Mladic, committed suicide in Belgrade with her father’s treasured pistol.

June 1994 Mladic was promoted to the rank of Colonel General.
 
July 1995 Troops commanded by Mladic occupied the UN-protected enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa, killing over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys and committing the ethnic cleansing of 25,000-30,000 refugees in the Srebrenica area.

August 1995 The President of the Bosnian Serb Republic, Radovan Karadzic, demoted Mladic to the rank of advisor, accusing him of the loss of two key Serb towns in western Bosnia that had recently fallen to the Croats.

November 1996 The President of the Bosnian Serb Republic, Biljana Plavsic, dismissed Mladic from his post although he continued receiving a pension until November 2005.

July 1995 The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) accused Mladic of genocide, crimes against humanity and numerous war crimes.

November 1995 The ICTY expanded the charges to include genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for the attack on Srebrenica. He was also charged with the taking of hostages amongst UN peacekeepers.

March 2000 He was reportedly seen in a private box, surrounded by eight bodyguards, at a football match between China and Yugoslavia in Belgrade.

March 2000 His professional army service was officially ended by a decree from the Republic of Srpska President Mirko Sarovic.

January 2002 The US General Secretary offered a five million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of Hague indictees Mladic and Karadzic.

June 2002 The Serbian parliament passed a law mandating cooperation with the ICTY.

December 2004 It was revealed in that the Serbian Army had been harboring and protecting Mladic until 2004.

June 2005 Human Rights Watch calls on Serbia, the EU and NATO to fulfill their legal and moral obligations and hand over Mladic and Karadzic, saying that “the victims of Srebrenica should not have to wait another decade for justice.”

December 2005 The Serbian Defense Ministry confirmed that Mladic received an army pension from Serbia-Montenegro until November 2005.

February 2006 The Romanian government, along with various foreign and domestic media outlets, reported that Mladic was arrested in Romania, close to the Serbian border by a joint Romanian-British special operation. ICTY prosecutor Carla Del Ponte denied the rumours of Mladic’s arrest, urging the Serbian government to find him without further delay.

September 2006 Serbian authorities prosecuted people suspected of hiding Mladic. A web of his former colleagues from the Bosnian Serb Army, friends and relatives who had been helping Mladic was revealed along with the fact he had lived in a building in Yuri Gagarin Street for more than a year.

April 2006 The Serbian and Montenegrin parliament adopted the Law on Freezing the Assets of Hague Indictees.

May 2006 Talks between Serbia and EU were suspended after the Serbian government failed to meet the EU deadline to hand over Mladic.

June 2006 There was speculation that Mladic had recently suffered a third stroke and that he had low chances of survival.

July 2006 The Serbian government adopted an Action Plan for Future ICTY Cooperation.

May 2007 The Serbian nationalist NGO Serbian National Movement 1389 put up fake street signs in Belgrade, renaming a boulevard after fugitive Mladic. The street was renamed the week before in tribute to late reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who was assassinated in 2003.  Several hundred Serbian Radical Party followers gathered in Belgrade after it to show their support for Mladic.

October 2007 Serbia offered a reward of €1 million for information leading to the location or arrest of Mladic.

January 2009 The Serbian National Movement 1389 put up posters naming so-called “true Serbs”, among them Mladic. A poll of 1,050 people in Serbia revealed that two-thirds of Serbs would not turn in Mladic.

June 2009 Bosnian state television broadcast several video clips showing Mladic living freely in Serbia. The President of the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal Rasim Ljajic confirmed that the footage was old and was handed over to the ICTY in March 2009.

June 16, 2010 Mladic’s family filed a request to declare him dead in accordance with the law as he has been absent for seven years

May 19, 2010 The ICTY prosecutor said he had received Mladic’s diaries from Serbia in May. The diaries are considered to be key pieces of evidence in several ongoing trials at the UN war crimes tribunal.

October 28, 2010 The Serbian government increased by tenfold a reward for information leading to the arrest of the most wanted war crimes suspect in the Balkans.

November 2, 2010 Serbian police searched three locations (two in Belgrade and one in Arandjelovac) where people close to Mladic are believed to be located.

May 26, 2011 Serbian police arrest Ratko Mladic in Serbia.