Milosavljević: Most young people do not know court-established facts about Mladić’s crimes

Most young people in Serbia do not know the facts established in international court judgments about Ratko Mladić’s crimes, and many cannot form an opinion about him as a convicted war criminal, says Marko Milosavljević of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.

Appearing on N1 television, Milosavljević cited the initiative’s 2023 research. It found that 65% of young people considered the public celebration of war criminals unacceptable. Yet when asked about specific figures such as Mladić, one-third said he was not a war criminal.

“Our research shows that most young people do not know the facts established in the judgments of international courts, and they also do not know how to assess specific actors who have been convicted war criminals, such as Mladić,” he said. Seventy-seven percent said they recognized Mladić and knew who he was. More than one-third viewed him negatively, while a similar proportion viewed him positively. Nearly 40% could not form an opinion about him at all.

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Our research shows that most young people do not know the facts established in the judgments of international courts, and they also do not know how to assess specific actors who have been convicted war criminals, such as Mladić. However, when we asked young people whether they recognized Ratko Mladić at all, a large majority, 77%, said they recognized him and knew who he was.

Milosavljević said Serbia has a consolidated group of young people shaped by nationalist ideas through the school system, streets, stadiums and messages from state representatives. He said this group is counted on to join the chauvinist chants seen in recent days, including at a Partizan and Red Star football match.

The survey found that young people most often identified the NATO bombing and Operation Storm as central events of the 1990s wars. Their main source of information was their parents and family stories, which are marked by family trauma. Only 7% knew about the Prijedor camps, where crimes against non-Serb civilians were committed in 1992 and for which Milosavljević said Mladić was also responsible.

As many as 34% said Mladić was not responsible for the crimes for which he was convicted. Only 20% identified the Srebrenica genocide among those crimes, while 5% referred to crimes in general. The rest of the quoted survey breakdown is cut off in the source.

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The main source of young people’s knowledge about the wars comes from their parents and their stories. Family trauma is important here, and that is why knowledge about the specific crimes for which Mladić was convicted is so limited.