Serbia buries Marko Mladic, the ‘Butcher of Bosnia,’ convicted of genocide

Ratko Mladic’s coffin was placed on display at a Belgrade Orthodox church on Monday before his burial, turning the funeral of the former Bosnian Serb general into an international controversy over tributes to a convicted war criminal.

Serbian television stations and online portals broadcast live from St. Luke’s Orthodox Church, showing the coffin on the altar flanked by six Serbian Army members. Thousands of people traveled to pay their respects to Mladic, who died on Aug. 27 at the age of 83 in a Dutch prison hospital.

Mladic spent 16 years as a fugitive after his arrest in Serbia in 2011. In 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced him to life in prison for crimes including the siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, in which more than 8,000 Muslim men were killed.

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People’s funeral

The Serbian Orthodox Church’s leader, Porfirije, was expected to conduct the funeral with about 300 other priests. The burial was scheduled for around 3 p.m. local time at Belgrade’s Topcider cemetery, beside the remains of Mladic’s daughter Ana, who died by suicide in 1994 during the Bosnian war.

Mladic’s son, Darko, said he did not expect political intervention and predicted a “people’s funeral,” referring to supporters in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska who regard his father as a hero. The live coverage and repeated praise for Mladic prompted condemnation abroad. The OSCE mission said public broadcasters should not amplify the glorification of war criminals and asked prosecutors to assess possible violations of the Criminal Code. European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos canceled a planned visit to Belgrade because of the acts of “glorification.” At a Serbian football derby, fans held a minute of silence and displayed a giant portrait of Mladic alongside the phrase “Direction Potocari,” attributed to him when he ordered movement toward Srebrenica.

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Glorification