Convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic gets hero’s burial in Serbia

Ratko Mladic, the former commander of Bosnian Serb forces during the 1990s Balkan conflict, received a state-sanctioned funeral in Belgrade attended by thousands despite widespread international opposition. The ceremony featured full military honors, including a coffin draped in the Serbian flag and participation from government officials, religious leaders, and opposition figures. Though President Aleksandar Vucic did not personally attend, his public backing of what he termed a "dignified funeral" and his son's presence signaled the government's tacit support for the proceedings.

Mladic's most notorious legacy stems from his role commanding forces that perpetrated the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, where over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were systematically killed in what the UN has determined constitutes genocide. The enclave, despite being designated a UN safe area, fell to Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic's command, leading to mass executions both within Srebrenica and in surrounding areas as civilians attempted to escape. Thousands of victims' remains were subsequently discovered in mass graves, with identification efforts continuing decades after the conflict's end.

The funeral triggered sharp international condemnation, with the European Union's commissioner for enlargement canceling an official Belgrade visit in protest and characterizing the event as incompatible with European values. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres similarly cautioned against glorifying convicted war criminals. Serbian civil society organizations and some analysts criticized the government for mythologizing Mladic while downplaying his crimes, viewing the ceremony as an affront to victims and survivors of the brutal 1992-1995 war.

Mladic had evaded capture for approximately 16 years following the conflict's end before his 2011 arrest in Serbia. He was subsequently extradited to The Hague, where the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted him of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, resulting in a life sentence that remained unchanged through his final appeals. His death and funeral underscore the region's continued struggle to reckon with its wartime past, as segments of the Serbian population maintain support for a figure convicted of orchestrating some of Europe's gravest postwar atrocities.