The European Union has urged Serbia to abandon plans to bury convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic with military honors, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said.
Mladic, a former military commander known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” died last week while serving a life sentence in The Hague, Netherlands. The former Yugoslav army general was convicted of crimes against humanity and genocide during the 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which killed more than 100,000 people and displaced over 2 million.
“Glorifying war criminals contradicts fundamental European values and has no place in the EU or candidate countries for EU membership,” Kos said in an interview on Monday at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia. She added: “Ratko Mladic was serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity and genocide in Srebrenica. He was a war criminal.”
Controversy over the burial
Plans for Mladic‘s burial have sparked controversy after Serbia’s Justice Minister Nenad Vujic said Mladic could be buried in Belgrade with consideration for his rank as an army general. Although this plan has not yet been confirmed, it has drawn negative reactions across the region.
Authorities in the Netherlands have not yet completed all necessary formalities before allowing the transfer of Mladic‘s body to his family. Meanwhile, in the Republika Srpska, the Serb entity in Bosnia, books of condolence have been opened following Mladic‘s death. State media in Serbia and Republika Srpska have called on citizens to honor his memory.
Conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity
In 2017, Mladic was found guilty on 10 of 11 counts, including that he “significantly contributed” to the genocide of around 8,000 Muslim men in the eastern city of Srebrenica in 1995. Other charges related to the 44-month siege of Sarajevo and the taking of UN peacekeepers hostage.
According to: Bloomberg
