Ratko Mladić buried in Belgrade as comrades place a sword on his grave and son gives incendiary speech

Ratko Mladić was buried in Belgrade under heavy security, with a Serbian flag covering his coffin and a ceremonial officer’s sword placed on his grave by former comrades. The former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska and convicted war criminal was interred Monday at Topčider Cemetery beside his daughter Ana.

Mladić died on August 27 at the age of 84 in the detention unit of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence. His remains were flown to Belgrade by the Serbian government several days before the funeral after an official autopsy at the Military Medical Academy.

The farewell began early at St Luke’s Church in Belgrade’s Košutnjak district. Thousands arrived from across Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, filling nearby streets with buses and private cars. Police closed access roads and diverted traffic. Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije led the service alongside senior church officials, while mourners watched on video screens in the crowded church grounds.

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Death is the greatest enemy of the human race.

Among those attending were former Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin, Interior Minister Bratislav Gašić, Minister Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski and Danilo Vučić, the son of Serbia’s president. Russia’s ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandar Bocan-Harčenko, was also present.

The ceremony ended with a gun salute at the cemetery. The most controversial moment came in a speech by Mladić’s son Darko, who praised his father’s wartime role while openly attacking the international community and the Hague tribunal. The burial drew sharp reactions and exposed divisions in Serbia and across the region.

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Only God’s judgment is infallible.