Thirty years after the end of the wars in the breakup of Yugoslavia, the fate of the former commanders is divided between prison cells, political offices and official ceremonies. Some of them were convicted of the worst crimes in Europe since World War II, others were acquitted, and still others retained influence in the countries they ruled or represented during the conflicts.
Life imprisonment and death behind bars
Radovan Karadzic, the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs and supreme commander of their armed forces, is serving a life sentence in Britain. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals found him guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, persecution, murder, deportations, terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo, and taking hostages.
His military ally Ratko Mladic is no longer alive. The former commander of the General Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army died on August 27, 2026, in a hospital in the Netherlands while serving a life sentence. The International Remnants Mechanism handed over his remains to his family in September.
Mladic was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including his role in the campaign against Bosnian Muslims and the killing of thousands of men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995.
From the courtroom to state institutions
Ante Gotovina is among the most notorious commanders to return to public life without a final conviction. The Croatian general was sentenced at first instance to 24 years in prison for crimes related to Operation Storm, but in 2012 the Appeals Chamber overturned the conviction and acquitted him. Gotovina is now a retired general and appears at official events dedicated to the Croatian army and veterans.
Ramush Haradinaj also moved from the battlefield to politics. The former Kosovo Liberation Army commander was acquitted in a retrial in The Hague in 2012. He then served twice as prime minister of Kosovo. In May 2026, he handed over the party leadership of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo to Ardian Ghini, but remained an MP and honorary chairman of the party.
“Justice cannot be achieved by persecuting the innocent“, Hashim Thaci said during his trial in The Hague. On September 16, 2026, the Kosovo Special Chambers sentenced him to 25 years in prison. The court found him guilty of illegal detention, ill-treatment, torture and murder committed during and immediately after the war in Kosovo. The verdict can be appealed.
Remaining sentences
Milan Martić, one of the political and military leaders of the Serbian Krajina in Croatia, is serving a 35-year sentence for war crimes. The international residual mechanism rejected his latest request for early release.
In Serbia, Vojvodin Šešelj remained a public political figure. The Appeals Chamber sentenced him to 10 years for inciting the forced displacement and persecution of the non-Serb population, but the sentence was declared served due to the years spent in detention. Thus, some of the most recognizable faces of the wars continued their political activities, while others ended their lives in prison.
Sources: apnews.com, koha.net, dnevnik.hr