Serbia plans military and state honours for Ratko Mladic burial

The Hague, Netherlands. Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, who was serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, has died after months of serious illness.

The Hague, Netherlands. Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic said on Friday that Mladic would be buried “with the military and state honours he deserves”.

Return of the body

Vujic told local radio station K1 that Serbian officials were awaiting information from authorities in The Hague on when Mladic’s body would be handed over.

Mladic died days after the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia rejected requests from his family and the Serbian government to transfer him to a military hospital in Belgrade for treatment.

Conviction and Bosnia war

Mladic was convicted over the Srebrenica massacre, in which forces under his command executed 8,000 Bosnian Muslims who had sought refuge in what was intended to be a UN-protected enclave.

The killings were the worst massacre in Europe since the Second World War.

Along with former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, Mladic was among three men whose actions defined the descent of the former Yugoslavia into mass slaughter following the fall of communism.

The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia killed around 100,000 people and displaced a further 2.2 million.

Reaction to funeral plans

The prospect of a state funeral has reopened divisions linked to the war. In Bosnia, politicians and representatives of victims’ organisations warned that official glorification of Mladic would insult the memory of those killed and undermine international court rulings.

Emir Suljagic, head of the Srebrenica Memorial, said Mladic’s death did not change the court’s findings, the historical record or the existence of mass graves.

In Republika Srpska, members of the public held memorial events and lit candles in his honour.