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🇷🇸 Serbia /Conflict & Security

Ratko Mladic’s body handed over and due in Serbia amid security preparations

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

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

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Ratko Mladic’s body had been collected and was expected to reach Serbia by late afternoon.
  • Authorities anticipate tens of thousands of attendees and are preparing a major security operation with logistical support from the state.
  • Plans for a funeral with full state honors have drawn criticism from historians, who say they could relativize crimes for which Mladic was convicted.

Serbia is preparing for the arrival of Ratko Mladic’s body, while officials anticipate a large gathering and criticism grows over the possibility of a state-honored funeral.

President Aleksandar Vucic said the body of the convicted war criminal had been collected and was expected to arrive in Serbia by late afternoon. Mladic died on August 27 while serving a life sentence for genocide in Srebrenica, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He had remained in the Hague detention unit since his sentencing.

Vucic said Mladic’s family would announce further details, while the state would provide logistical and transport assistance to maintain public order and safety. Security assessments by the Security-Information Agency, military agencies and the Interior Ministry indicate that tens of thousands of people could attend.

A demanding job is ahead of our services and we will use everything to ensure it.

· Aleksandar VucicThe Serbian president described the security challenge posed by the expected funeral attendance.

“A demanding job is ahead of our services and we will use everything to ensure it,” Vucic said, referring to the security operation.

The funeral arrangements have become politically contentious. Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic previously told Banja Luka-based Alternativna televizija that Mladic would be buried with full state honors, although his family would decide the final resting place.

Olga Manojlovic Pintar, a senior research associate at Serbia’s Institute for Recent History, criticized that prospect. She told Deutsche Welle that carrying out the plan would continue official policies toward the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice. She said it would further demonstrate a politics of remembrance based on relativizing crimes rather than pursuing truth.

The realization would serve as further evidence of an official politics of remembrance based on the relativization of crimes rather than the ideal of truth.

· Olga Manojlovic PintarShe criticized the prospect of granting Mladic a funeral with full state honors.
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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