Arya News - Thousands attend Belgrade funeral of former Bosnian Serb army general convicted of orchestrating Srebrenica genocide.
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Belgrade, Serbia – Thousands of people have gathered in Belgrade for the funeral of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, despite warnings against the “glorification” of the former Bosnian Serb army general.
Mladic, 84, died on August 27 while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His body was returned to Serbia on a government plane last week, sparking condemnation in the region and beyond.
Dubbed “ the butcher of Bosnia “, Mladic was buried on Monday in a coffin wrapped in the Serbian flag, with full military honours and the participation of government members.
Among those in attendance were Serbian opposition figures; former and current officials of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s two entities; pro-Serbian politicians from neighbouring Montenegro and Russia’s Ambassador to Serbia Alexandar Botsan-Kharchenko.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who has sought to maintain good relations with both Western countries and Russia, did not attend the funeral. Mladic’s family had publicly thanked the president for his support, and Vucic also backed what he described as a “dignified funeral”. Vucic’s son, Danilo, was also present at the funeral.
Ahead of the ceremony, the police had blocked off the parts of the city where the church and the cemetery are located.
From the early morning, Mladic’s body lay in state at St. Luke church near the cemetery. The main religious service was led by Patriarch Porfirije, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Some people waited for hours to pay their respects to Mladic, whose legacy continues to divide Serbian society and fuel tensions in the region, even 30 years after the end of the war.
Serbian Orthodox priests hold a ceremony during the funeral of Ratko Mladic [Uros Arsic/Reuters] EU condemnation
Last week, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos cancelled an official visit to Belgrade over Mladic’s funeral. She said “the glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built”, adding that the way Mladic was being treated in Serbia reminded Europe of “the darkest pages of our recent history”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also warned against actions that glorify convicted war criminals.
Civil society organisations in Serbia criticised and protested the decision to give Mladic military honours, calling it a slap in the face to victims and survivors.
Belgrade-based sociologist Marko Oljaca said that although President Vucic did not attend the funeral, he had mobilised an entire machinery that mythologises and humanises Mladic while denying and relativising his crimes.
“It is cowardly, but the fact that he is a coward does not mean he is not dangerous,” Oljaca told Al Jazeera.
The legacy of the war and the Srebrenica genocide
Mladic was one of the best-known and most notorious military commanders of the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The most infamous part of his legacy is linked to the genocide in Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, near the border with Serbia. Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic’s command captured Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the UN having declared the municipality a “safe area”.
After the enclave fell, Mladic’s forces killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, in one of the worst crimes committed in Europe since World War II, an atrocity that has been ruled a genocide by a UN court.
Some civilians were captured and executed at locations in and around Srebrenica. Others were killed after attempting to flee through the forests towards territory controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The victims’ remains were later found in numerous mass graves, while many victims were identified years after the war. The remains of some 1,000 victims are still being sought.
Military career and the war
Mladic was born in the village of Bozanovici, near Kalinovik, about 40km (25 miles) south of Sarajevo. He began his military career in the Yugoslav People’s Army and gradually rose through the army’s command structure.
When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in the spring of 1992, following Slovenia and Croatia, Bosnian Serbs established their own political and military structures and proclaimed the Republika Srpska, covering approximately half of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s territory.
In May 1992, Mladic was appointed commander of the Bosnian Serb army.
Over the next three and a half years, he sought to seize parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the capital, Sarajevo.
His forces failed to make major territorial gains, but committed numerous crimes across Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Arrest and conviction
Before his arrest in May 2011 in the village of Lazarevo, near Zrenjanin, about 80km (50 miles) northeast of Belgrade, Mladic had spent nearly 16 years hiding in Serbia.
He was one of Europe’s most wanted fugitives accused of war crimes. After his arrest, he was extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where he was sentenced to life in prison.
Although his convictions were final, Mladic continued to enjoy support among parts of the public and political circles in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In May 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring July 11 the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.
The resolution aims to preserve the memory of the victims and promote a culture of remembrance, while reaffirming the importance of confronting genocide denial and preventing the recurrence of such crimes.
Natasa Kovacev reported from Belgrade and Armin Aljovic from Sarajevo.