Did Daughter's Death Drive Mladic Crazy?

Also: Tribunal denies bid to avoid extradition
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 31, 2011 9:40 AM CDT
Tribunal Denies Ratko Mladic Bid to Avoid Extradition to the Hague
This photo taken around the date of his arrest on Thursday, May 26, shows Ratko Mladic.   (AP Photo/Politika Newspaper)

No surprise here: A tribunal in Serbia had little sympathy for Ratko Mladic's reported ill health and denied his bid to avoid extradition to the Hague to face war crimes charges. He could be on a plane within hours, reports the BBC. Earlier today, officials allowed Mladic to visit his daughter's grave, and the New York Times and Newsweek provide a fascinating peek at how her death in 1994 is rumored to have changed Mladic for the worse.

According to official Serbian accounts, Ana Mladic committed suicide with her father's military pistol. One popular version has it that she caught wind of atrocities in the Balkans and could not deal with it. Mladic, meanwhile, maintains she was murdered. "Some people think he went mad," a former commander tells Newsweek's Janine di Giovanni. “Mladic’s life had two phases—before and after the death of Ana." About a year after her death, the Srebrenica massacre in which he stands accused took place. (More Ratko Mladic stories.)

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