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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

EU says glorifying Mladic has no place in candidate country Serbia

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency Context piece
  • The European Union said glorifying war criminals, denying genocide and historical revisionism have no place in the bloc or in candidate countries such as Serbia.
  • The statement came as the coffin of former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, was displayed in a Belgrade church before his burial.
  • The EU stressed reconciliation and good-neighborly relations in the Western Balkans, while Serbia faced criticism over official honors for Mladic.

The European Union has warned Serbia that glorifying Ratko Mladic, denying genocide and rewriting the past have no place in a country seeking membership of the bloc. The warning came as the coffin of the former Bosnian Serb general was displayed in a Belgrade church before his burial on Monday.

“Any glorification of war criminals, denial of genocide and revisionism contradict the most fundamental European values and have no place either in the EU or in countries aspiring to join the EU,” a spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

Any glorification of war criminals, denial of genocide and revisionism contradict the most fundamental European values and have no place either in the EU or in countries aspiring to join the EU.

· European Union spokesperson for Kaja KallasThe spokesperson warned Serbia against honoring Ratko Mladic as the former general was buried.

Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” died on Aug. 27 at the age of 83 in a Dutch prison hospital. Serbian authorities arrested him in 2011 after 16 years as a fugitive. In 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced him to life imprisonment for crimes including the siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, in which more than 8,000 Muslim men were killed.

The conflicts in the Western Balkans in the 1990s were one of the darkest moments in Europe’s recent history.

· European Union spokespersonThe EU expressed solidarity with victims and survivors of the Yugoslav wars.

The burial and tributes to Mladic have triggered international controversy. Serbia used a government aircraft to bring his coffin from the Netherlands to Belgrade. Soldiers carried the coffin, which was covered with the flags of Serbia and Republika Srpska, one of the two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The EU also emphasized reconciliation and good-neighborly relations across the Western Balkans. It said the wars of the 1990s represented one of Europe’s darkest recent periods and expressed solidarity with victims, survivors and their families. European Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos canceled a planned visit to Belgrade over the glorification events, a decision Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called “stupid.”

Stupid.

· Aleksandar VucicThe Serbian president dismissed the explanation given for Marta Kos’s canceled visit.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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