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🇷🇸 Serbia /Conflict & Security

Ratko Mladic’s body brought to Serbia in government plane as soldiers carry coffin in televised ceremony

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

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

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency Outcome reported
  • Ratko Mladic’s body was flown from The Hague to Serbia and taken to a military hospital for an autopsy, according to AP and Serbian media reports.
  • Soldiers carried his coffin, wrapped in the national flag, during a ceremony broadcast live on pro-government television.
  • Mladic died while serving a life sentence for the Srebrenica massacre, the siege of Sarajevo and other wartime crimes, prompting renewed debate over his legacy in Serbia.

Ratko Mladic’s coffin arrived in Serbia on a government plane, carried from the aircraft to a van by Serbian army soldiers. The coffin was wrapped in the national flag as pro-government television channel Informer broadcast the ceremony live.

Mladic’s son Darko, Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujić and former associates of the wartime commander were reportedly on the plane. The body was taken to a military hospital for an autopsy. Serbian media reported that a military commemoration would take place on Saturday and the funeral on Monday.

President Aleksandar Vučić said the Hague court had handed Mladic’s body to his family, a transfer later confirmed by the court. He predicted that tens of thousands of people could attend the funeral, which he said would pose a difficult task for security services.

We stand in solidarity with the victims, survivors and their families who suffered the crimes for which Ratko Mladic was found guilty.

· International Residual Mechanism for Criminal TribunalsThe tribunal’s successor addressed victims and condemned the glorification of convicted war criminals.

Mladic died in a Hague prison while serving a life sentence. The UN court convicted him in 2017 of organizing the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, the years-long siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 war and other crimes, including concentration camps for non-Serb civilians and captured enemy soldiers.

Thousands of Serbs held vigils and marches in his honor after news of his death, drawing condemnation in a region that remains ethnically divided more than three decades after the war. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals said it stood with the victims, survivors and families who suffered the crimes for which Mladic was convicted, and condemned efforts to glorify people found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos warned that glorifying war criminals had no place in an EU member or candidate country. Families of Mladic’s victims said his conviction had brought at least some justice for their loved ones. Serbia, which supported the Bosnian Serbs during the war, officially seeks EU membership but remains defiant about its wartime role.

The glorification of war criminals has no place in an EU member state or candidate country.

· EU Enlargement CommissionerThe commissioner criticized public honors for Mladic in the context of Serbia’s EU candidacy.
About this summary

Originally published by N1 Serbia in Serbian. 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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