The remains of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who passed away last week in The Hague while serving a life sentence for genocide and war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, have been repatriated to Serbia.
Draped in the Serbian flag, Mladic’s coffin was transported from the aircraft by members of the Serbian Armed Forces and moved by vehicle to the Military Medical Academy for an autopsy.
Various groups of citizens assembled along the route from the airport to the hospital. Positioned on overpasses, they saluted the motorcade carrying Mladic’s body, displaying banners that read “Thank you, General” and “Heroes never die.”
Pro-government tabloids offered live coverage of the event, describing Mladic as a “Serbian general” and alleging that he had been “killed in The Hague.”
A funeral with full state honors?
Ratko Mladic was convicted in 2017 to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for the genocide in Srebrenica, during which over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered, the prolonged siege of Sarajevo throughout the 1992–95 Bosnian War, and additional war crimes, including the operation of detention camps for non-Serb civilians and prisoners of war.
Belgrade media report that Mladic will be interred in Belgrade on Monday. Justice Minister Nenad Vujic had earlier indicated that the funeral would be conducted with the highest state honors.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, however, states that the decision will be left to the family.
Security agencies project that tens of thousands of people could attend the funeral.
“We will be present to provide all forms of logistical and transport support and to maintain public order and security,” the president stated, adding, “It is very difficult to ensure and guarantee the safety of everyone.”
Glorification that has continued for decades
For Jasmina Lazovic, executive director of the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center, which has worked for decades on transitional justice and confronting the past, this comes as no surprise.
She highlights the longstanding veneration of Ratko Mladic in Serbia and his legacy.
“There is no small town in Serbia without at least one mural glorifying Ratko Mladic. The narrative that he was unjustly convicted has existed for years,” she told DW. “Now a narrative has emerged that he was killed, despite the fact that he died at the age of 85 after suffering several strokes.”
Lazovic notes that these narratives serve the state leadership’s depiction of Serbia as a nation that fought exclusively defensive wars and fail to create sufficient space for discussion of the consequences of those wars and the victims they left behind — neither in the media nor in the education system and institutions.
“And there are hundreds of thousands of victims across Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Above all, these were crimes committed against civilians, crimes that left the countries of the region — particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina — with a completely transformed ethnic structure,” she stated.
Lazovic emphasizes that the list of victims also includes those who survived rape and torture, as well as those who were forcibly displaced. “The list is long, and our knowledge is limited,” she added.
A general without a rank
The announcement that Mladic could receive the highest state honors drew immediate responses from the international community.
“Glorification of war criminals is contrary to European values. There is no place for it either in EU member states or in candidate countries. I hope the government in Belgrade is aware of that,” stated European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos.
Aleksandar Vucic countered by accusing the West and the Hague Tribunal of holding only Serbs accountable for war crimes and failing to deliver justice for Serbian victims. For now, however, he has officially deferred the decision on whether the deceased general will receive state honors to Mladic’s family.
Jasmina Lazovic believes Vucic will once again adopt a pragmatic stance and that the final decision will hinge on an assessment of what yields greater political benefit and what could cause greater damage.
She also points out that the issue is not only political, but legal.
“What is being overlooked here is the fact that Ratko Mladic was indeed a general, but he was sentenced to life in prison. Under the Law on the Serbian Armed Forces, anyone sentenced to more than one year in prison for a criminal offense loses their rank and, therefore, all the privileges that come with that rank,” she told DW.
“If Ratko Mladic were buried with the highest state honors in accordance with the rank he held during the armed conflicts, that would be a direct violation of the law of this country,” said Lazovic.
What do Serbs want?
Regarding how they view Ratko Mladic, Serbian citizens interviewed by DW in several cities across the multi-ethnic autonomous province of Vojvodina expressed sharply differing opinions, ranging from those convinced that Mladic was unjustly convicted to those who accept the genocide designation without reservation.
“What was he supposed to do, let them kill all the Serbs? Thank you [Mladic], for everything,” a man from Ruma told DW.
“For me, the matter was settled when the genocide verdict was handed down,” said a student from Novi Sad.
But most people simply dismiss the question. “I have enough of my own problems,” said Svetlana from Zrenjanin.
Goran, from Novi Sad, views it as merely another political issue: “They’ve been making fools of us for years. Nothing is different now,” he told DW.
Jasmina Lazovic believes that most Serbs are apathetic about the matter.
For her, this is a greater problem than just the pro-government media portraying Serbia as wanting to bid farewell to Mladic as a general. She argues that confronting Mladic’s legacy and the past is essential if Serbian society is to move forward.