Serbia’s Opposition Divided Over Mladić Funeral: Some Attend, Others Call Honors Shameful

Serbia’s opposition has offered sharply conflicting responses to the funeral of Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska who died on August 27 in The Hague while serving a life sentence for genocide and other war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s.

Some opposition representatives attended a memorial service and said they would attend the funeral at Belgrade’s Topčider Cemetery. Others condemned the state and church honors given to Mladić.

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As long as such figures are our heroes, we remain trapped in hatred. Instead, I choose empathy for the victims, humanity and peace for generations to come.

Dobrica Veselinović, an MP from the Green-Left Front, said the funeral of a “convicted war criminal” in Belgrade, along with what he called a “shameful supporters’ performance” at a Red Star Belgrade and Partizan match, brought shame and made people look away. “As long as such figures are our heroes, we remain trapped in hatred. Instead, I choose empathy for the victims, humanity and peace for generations to come,” he wrote on X.

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It is a great shame to give state and church honors to criminals.

Vladimir Pajić of the Movement of Free Citizens also called it “a great shame to give state and church honors to criminals.” He accused Mladić and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić of hiding and described them as “weaklings, liars and people unworthy of any respect.”

Aleksandar Marton, a spokesman for the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, said state and patriarchal honors for a person convicted of genocide against Bosniaks represented a continuation of a policy of crime and hatred toward Bosniaks. By contrast, the New Democratic Party of Serbia published photographs of its president and members paying respects at St Luke’s Church in Belgrade. The party called Mladić a symbol of Serbian defiance, the struggle for freedom and the defense of the homeland, and said his death had brought people together and separated “the wheat from the chaff.”

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As long as he was alive, he became a symbol of Serbian defiance, the struggle for freedom and the defense of the homeland. Even by departing into eternity, he managed to bring the people together and separate the wheat from the chaff.