The body of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander who died in The Hague while serving a life sentence for genocide and war crimes, has arrived back in Serbia. Wrapped in the Serbian flag, his coffin was carried by members of the Serbian Armed Forces from the plane to the Military Medical Academy for autopsy.
Several groups of citizens gathered along the route from the airport, holding banners reading "Thank you, General" and "Heroes never die." Pro-government tabloids provided extensive coverage, referring to Mladic as a "Serbian general" and claiming he had been "killed in The Hague." The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Mladic in 2017 to life imprisonment for the genocide in Srebrenica, in which more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed, the years-long siege of Sarajevo during the 1992–95 Bosnian War, and other war crimes including the establishment of detention camps for non-Serb civilians and prisoners of war.
Justice Minister Nenad Vujic announced the funeral would be held with the highest state honors, and Serbian media reported that Mladic will be buried in Belgrade on Monday. However, President Aleksandar Vucic said the decision will be left to the family. Security agencies estimate that tens of thousands of people could attend, with the president saying his administration would provide "all kinds of logistical and transport support" while maintaining "public order and security."
The announcement drew swift international criticism. European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said that "glorification of war criminals is contrary to European values" and that there is "no place for it either in EU member states or in candidate countries." Vucic responded by accusing the West and the Hague Tribunal of blaming only Serbs for war crimes and failing to deliver justice for Serbian victims.
Jasmina Lazovic, executive director of the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center, noted that the glorification of Mladic in Serbia has been longstanding. "There is no small town in Serbia without at least one mural glorifying Ratko Mladic," she said. "The narrative that he was unjustly convicted has existed for years," and "now a narrative has emerged that he was killed, despite the fact that he died at the age of 85 after suffering several strokes." Lazovic said the state's portrayal of Serbia as having fought only defensive wars leaves insufficient room for discussion of the wars' consequences and victims across the region.
She also raised a legal issue: under the Law on the Serbian Armed Forces, anyone sentenced to more than one year in prison loses their rank and associated privileges. "If Ratko Mladic were buried with the highest state honors in accordance with the rank he held during the armed conflicts, that would be a direct violation of the law of this country," she said. Serbian citizens interviewed by DW expressed sharply differing views, from those convinced Mladic was unjustly convicted to those accepting the genocide designation without reservation, though Lazovic observed that most Serbs appeared apathetic about the matter.
