Senior Serbian officials attend memorial ceremony for convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić

Senior Serbian politicians joined a memorial ceremony in Belgrade for Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb army chief convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

About 300 people attended the event, according to AFP, including Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujić and several officials from Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb entity. Sinisa Karan, its president, was among them. Retired and serving generals organized the ceremony.

Mladić died on Thursday at a hospital in The Hague at the age of 84. He had served a life sentence there after being convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He had suffered health problems for years and recently experienced several strokes.

The former commander, widely known as the “Butcher of the Balkans,” is due to be buried in Belgrade on Monday with military and state honors. Thousands of people are expected to attend. The ceremony and the planned honors have also drawn attention from the European Union, which has distanced itself from Serbia over what it sees as the glorification of Mladić.