Serbian war criminal worked as labourer

“He was an ordinary labourer. We worked together, and I am still in shock,” a 20-year-old student who worked with Mladić on a construction site in the city of Zrenjanin told the Serbian newspaper Blic.

The student, who claims to have first encountered Mladić when the former military leader was employed on the site in June, said that while he never realised that his colleague was the very same war criminal – who has been a fugitive since 1995 – he always noted a physical resemblance.

“Once I asked him if anyone had ever told him about his striking resemblance with Mladić. He only laughed and said that so many people look like him,” the student said.

While in hiding, Mladić allegedly never spoke about politics or current events, and is said to have worked only “the simplest jobs.”

As a high-ranking officer of the Yugoslav People’s Army and Chief of Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army in the early 90s, Mladić participated in the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre, the latter considered to be the largest act of genocide since World War II.

Following an anonymous tip, the Serbian Security Information Agency (BIA) arrested Mladić in the town of Lazarevo on Thursday, and Serbian President Boris Tadic confirmed his identity in a press conference. 

Mladić’s arrest had been a condition for Serbia’s accession into the European Union.