US senators and congressman urge Serbian authorities to distance themselves from Mladic funeral

Three senior US lawmakers are warning Serbia and Republika Srpska not to turn Ratko Mladic’s funeral into an official memorial for a convicted war criminal. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Chuck Grassley, together with Congressman Keith Self, called on both governments to distance themselves from the planned ceremonies.

In a statement issued ahead of Monday’s funeral, the lawmakers said authorities should ensure that no public statement or official act presents Mladic as anything other than what he was: a convicted architect of genocide. Mladic died at 84 in the hospital of the detention unit in Scheveningen while serving a life sentence for war crimes.

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Ahead of Monday's funeral, we call on the Government of Serbia and the Government of Republika Srpska to refrain from any association with the planned ceremonies and to ensure that no public statement or official act memorializes Mladic as anything other than what he was: a convicted architect of genocide.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted him of war crimes and the Srebrenica genocide. The lawmakers said more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered in Srebrenica and that Mladic’s forces were responsible for the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo.

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Ratko Mladic was a war criminal and the architect of the Srebrenica genocide, in which more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered.

They condemned any government commemoration or glorification of his death as an insult to his victims and to a region still living with the consequences of ethnic cleansing. The statement also criticized Serbia’s announcement that Mladic would receive state and military honors, and cited Milorad Dodik’s description of him as “a fighter for Serbian freedom.”

The lawmakers said the coming days would test whether Serbia and Republika Srpska were ready to break with the past and advance toward EU accession and Euro-Atlantic integration, or allow that past to obstruct a better future for their people.

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It is a desecration, to the memory of his victims and to a region still living with the consequences of his campaign of ethnic cleansing, for any government to memorialize or glorify his death.