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🇷🇸 Serbia /Conflict & Security

World agencies report on Ratko Mladić’s body arriving in Serbia on government plane

From N1 Serbia · () Serbian

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

At a glance

News From a news agency New plan
  • Ratko Mladić’s body arrived in Serbia from The Hague on a government plane and was taken to a military hospital for an autopsy.
  • Serbian soldiers carried the coffin, draped in the national flag, during a ceremony broadcast live by pro-government television.
  • Mladić’s planned military memorial and funeral have drawn attention to Serbia’s continued divisions over its role in the Bosnian war and the commemoration of convicted war criminals.

Ratko Mladić’s coffin arrived in Serbia under a national flag, carried by Serbian Army soldiers from a government plane to a waiting van. The ceremony was broadcast live on the pro-government television channel Informer, giving a highly public return to the former Bosnian Serb commander.

The Associated Press reported that Mladić’s son Darko, Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujić and several of his former associates were aboard the aircraft. His body was taken to a military hospital for an autopsy. President Aleksandar Vučić said earlier that the United Nations court in The Hague had handed the body to the family, a transfer the court later confirmed.

Mladić died last week in prison in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence. The court convicted him in 2017 for organizing the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, the years-long siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 war and other crimes, including the establishment of detention camps for non-Serb civilians and enemy soldiers.

We stand in solidarity with the victims, survivors and their families who suffered the crimes for which Ratko Mladić was found guilty, and condemn all acts that glorify persons convicted by international courts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

· International Residual Mechanism for Criminal TribunalsStatement issued after Mladić’s body was returned to his family and brought to Serbia.

Pro-government media reported that a military memorial would take place on Saturday and the funeral on Monday. Vučić predicted that tens of thousands of people could attend, creating a difficult security task. Thousands of Serbs held vigils and marches in Mladić’s honor after news of his death, prompting condemnation in a region that remains ethnically divided more than three decades after the war.

The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals said it stood in solidarity with victims, survivors and their families, and condemned actions glorifying people convicted by international courts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The EU’s enlargement commissioner also warned that glorifying war criminals has no place in an EU country or candidate country. Families of Mladić’s victims have said his conviction brought at least some justice for the deaths of their loved ones.

The glorification of war criminals has no place in an EU country or candidate country.

· EU enlargement commissionerWarning issued amid plans for Mladić’s military memorial and funeral.
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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