Serbia accused of ‘glorifying’ convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić ahead of funeral

BELGRADE, Serbia — The European Union’s Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos on Friday canceled an upcoming visit to candidate nation Serbia over what she described as the “glorification” of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladić following his death. Mladić was convicted of genocide by a U.N. court but remains a hero to many Serbs. Mladić’s remains were flown to Belgrade on a Serbian government plane from The Hague, Netherlands, on Thursday, a week after his death and days ahead of his burial in a Belgrade cemetery.

Mladić was sentenced in 2017 to life imprisonment for orchestrating the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995; the yearslong siege of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 conflict; and other war crimes, including setting up concentration camps for detained non-Serb civilians and enemy soldiers. Upon landing in Belgrade, Mladić’s coffin was wrapped in the national flag and Serbian soldiers carried his body to a van for transport to the military hospital. Serbia’s Justice Minister Nenad Vujic was on the plane with Mladić’s family members and nationalist admirers lit flares as the convoy passed.

Kos said on X that “the glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built.” “Ratko Mladić was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Kos said. Mladić’s son, Darko Mladić, said at a news conference Friday that a military commemoration is planned for Saturday. Mladić’s coffin will be placed in a church in Belgrade on Monday morning so people can pay their respects before his funeral and burial later that day.

Vučić had previously said Mladić would be buried with full state honors, sparking outrage across the Balkans, where ethnic divisions persist decades after the 1992-95 war in Bosnia killed over 100,000 people and displaced millions. Last year, Serbia buried another convicted war criminal, the former army chief of staff Nebojša Pavković, with full military honors at a cemetery for distinguished individuals. Serbia, which backed Bosnian Serb forces during the war, is formally seeking EU membership but remains defiant over its war role, accusing the West of anti-Serb bias.

After Mladić died last week, thousands of Serbs in their political entity in Bosnia and many in Serbia held vigils in his honor. Thousands could attend the funeral. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, on Friday urged authorities in Serbia and in the Serb-run entity of Bosnia to “counter the glorification of convicted war criminals,” which is illegal in Bosnia and “is not protected speech under the European Convention on Human Rights.” “I abhor the public glorification of Ratko Mladić, a deceased war criminal convicted for the Srebrenica genocide and crimes against humanity,” O’Flaherty said in a statement.

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said granting funeral honors for Mladić would be “shameful and disrespectful for the victims,” adding: “I condemn that act in the strongest terms, and have passed this message to my Serbian counterpart in charge of European affairs this morning.” Calls are also multiplying for Europe’s biggest political bloc - the European People’s Party - to cut its ties to Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is a member of the EPP, along with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and other top officials. Vladimir Prebilic, a European Parliament member from Slovenia, urged the EPP to “stop acting as a safe haven” for Vučić’s party, which he said “openly celebrates convicted war criminals and rolls out the red carpet for the ‘Butcher of Bosnia.”’ In Serbia, Vučić, who is a former extreme nationalist who backed Serbia’s expansionist policies in the past, said Friday that he has previously scheduled meetings Monday, and the funeral arrangements were made by Mladić’s family.