Ratko Mladić, former military commander of the Bosnian Serbs, convicted of genocide and war crimes, will be buried with military and state honors.

Ratko Mladic, known as the 'Butcher of the Balkans' for his role in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, died Thursday in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic announced that Mladic would receive 'the military and state honors he is entitled to'.

Serbian authorities are awaiting details from The Hague to retrieve the body. Mladic died after his family's request to transfer him to a military hospital in Belgrade was denied.

He was a central figure in the Bosnian War (1992-1995), which resulted in the deaths of approximately 100,000 people and the displacement of 2.2 million. In Srebrenica, his forces executed 8,000 Bosniak Muslims, in what is considered the worst massacre in post-war Europe.