Allan Little: I met dangerously fanatical Mladić early in Bosnian war

What the report says

BBC special correspondent Allan Little reflects on meeting Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladić during the early months of the Bosnian war, in a commentary published after reports of Mladić’s death in prison. Little says he encountered Mladić at Lukavica barracks near Sarajevo, where the commander appeared energized by the fighting and presented himself as a defender of unity in the former Yugoslavia.

The piece places that encounter within the wider collapse of Bosnia and the violence that followed. It describes civilians fleeing attacks, the spread of armed militias, and the atmosphere of fear in which ethnic identity became a primary way of describing people who were also, as Little notes, professionals, parents and children. The article also recalls the killing of Little’s cameraman, Tihomir Tunukovic, during the war, underscoring the personal danger faced by journalists covering the conflict.

Little says Mladić struck him as fanatical and argues that forces under his command were linked to atrocities later recognized as among the worst in Europe since World War II. The BBC context notes that Mladić was convicted for war crimes related to the Bosnian conflict and was widely known as the “Butcher of Bosnia.” The commentary is part remembrance, part reflection on how the war escalated into ethnic cleansing, mass murder and the Srebrenica genocide, and why those events remain central to Bosnia’s history.