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Return, honors, and backlash
Ratko Mladić’s coffin was flown from The Hague to Belgrade on a Serbian government plane after he died last week in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence for genocide and other war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
““The glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built.””
In Belgrade, the coffin was wrapped in the Serbian flag and Justice Minister Nenad Vujic accompanied the relatives, while people lined along the route and banners and flares greeted the procession.
European Union Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said on X that “The glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built,” and she announced she was canceling a planned visit to Serbia.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic responded by calling Kos’s accusations “stupid,” and he said, “Was I supposed to ban the funeral? Ban people from attending? Not regulate traffic?”
What Europe says, what Serbia answers
DW reported that Serbia’s Justice Minister Nenad Vujic had previously announced a funeral with the highest state honors, while Vucic said the decision would be left to the family and that security agencies estimate that tens of thousands of people could attend.
DW also quoted Jasmina Lazovic, executive director of the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center, saying, “There is no small town in Serbia without at least one mural glorifying Ratko Mladic,” and she argued the narrative that he was unjustly convicted has existed for years.
El País tied Mladić’s legacy to Srebrenica, writing that in July 1995, “by his order, the Bosnian Serb army watered with the blood of 8,000 children and Muslim men, refugees in Srebrenica,” and it described his funeral as a place where state honors would be received.
El País added that “at his funeral he will receive state honors because in his country he is considered a hero,” while The Guardian described Mladić as a “hero in the Republika Srpska statelet” and in Serbia itself.
EU accession stakes and next steps
Multiple outlets framed the funeral as a test for Serbia’s EU path, with the European Union warning of possible consequences after the return of Mladić’s remains to Belgrade.
“it could “close the door” to EU membership”
The New Voice of Ukraine reported that Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that if Serbia holds a state funeral for Mladić, it could “close the door” to EU membership, and it said the European Union has already warned Serbia of possible consequences.
AP’s account via FOX8 WGHP said Kos canceled an upcoming visit over what she described as the “glorification” of Mladić, and it quoted Kos on X that “Ratko Mladic was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
As Serbia prepares for a farewell ceremony and burial, Reuters-linked reporting in Бабель said the circumstances of Mladić’s death are being investigated by the UN mechanism in The Hague, and it described the autopsy and the planned Saturday farewell and Monday burial next to his daughter.