The European Union is closely watching how membership candidate Serbia will handle the funeral of the former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who was convicted of genocide by a UN court but remains a hero to many Serbs, reports the AP. The EU’s Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said that the next few days “will be a very important test” after Mladic’s remains were flown to Serbia on a government plane Thursday from The Hague, following his death there last week. Mladic was sentenced in 2017 to life imprisonment for orchestrating the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 and other war crimes, including setting up concentration camps for detained non-Serb civilians and enemy soldiers.
Upon landing in Belgrade, Mladic’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 Mladic’s family while groups of nationalist admirers lit flares as the convoy with the coffin passed under escort. Mladic’s son, Darko Mladic, said Friday that his father will be buried Monday while a military commemoration ceremony is planned for Saturday. Mladic’s coffin will be placed in a church in Belgrade on Monday so people can pay their respects, his son said. Vujic had previously said that Mladic would receive full state honors, sparking outrage across the volatile Balkans. Last year, Serbia buried another convicted war criminal, the former army chief of staff Nebojsa Pavkovic, with full military honors at a cemetery for distinguished individuals.
Serbia, which backed the Bosnian Serbs during the war, is formally seeking EU entry but remains defiant over its war role, accusing the West of bias. 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” that is illegal in Bosnia and “is not protected speech under the European Convention on Human Rights.” “I abhor the public glorification of Ratko Mladic, a deceased war criminal convicted for the Srebrenica genocide and crimes against humanity,” O’Flaherty said in a statement.
Populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, a former extreme nationalist who has backed Serbia’s expansionist policies, said Friday that he has previously scheduled meetings on Monday, and that the funeral arrangements have been decided by Mladic’s family. “I have spoken to the Mladic family and I wish it all passes in a dignified way,” Vucic said, according to the pro-government Informer television. He added without elaborating that “I did all I could so that the funeral would pass as it should.” Serbia’s EU bid has stalled under increasingly authoritarian Vucic due to general democratic backsliding and his refusal to join international sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.