Thousands gathered in Belgrade on Monday to bid farewell to Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander whose life sentence for genocide and war crimes made him one of the most notorious figures of the Yugoslav wars.
Mladic died on August 27 at the age of 84 while serving his sentence in The Hague. His return to Serbia for burial triggered scenes that demonstrated just how differently his legacy is viewed more than three decades after the Bosnian War.
Crowds gathered outside St. Luke’s Church in Belgrade, where his coffin was placed before the funeral service. Serbian officials, veterans and nationalist supporters were among those attending, alongside figures from Republika Srpska and Russia’s ambassador to Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic did not attend.
The public honors prompted a strong reaction from the European Union, which has repeatedly warned that celebrating people convicted of atrocities is incompatible with the principles expected of countries seeking EU membership.
Why Ratko Mladic Was Convicted of Genocide
Mladic commanded the Bosnian Serb army during the 1992-1995 war that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia.
International judges found him responsible for some of the conflict’s gravest crimes. Most prominent was the killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys following the capture of Srebrenica in July 1995. The massacre has been legally established as genocide by international courts.
Mladic was also convicted for crimes connected with the siege of Sarajevo, during which civilians endured years of shelling and sniper attacks, as well as persecution and forced expulsions elsewhere in Bosnia.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017, and the judgment was upheld on appeal in 2021.
Following his death, the EU stressed that the rulings of international courts must be respected and said its thoughts were with the victims and their families. Brussels also warned against denying genocide, rewriting the history of the conflict or glorifying convicted war criminals.
Why Mladic Remains a Hero to Some Serbs
The international judgments, however, have not erased Mladic’s popularity among sections of Serbian and Bosnian Serb society.
For his supporters, Mladic is remembered primarily as a soldier who defended Serbs during the violent collapse of Yugoslavia. This interpretation exists alongside a broader belief among Serbian nationalists that the suffering of Serb civilians during the wars of the 1990s has received less recognition internationally and that responsibility for the conflicts has been presented in an overwhelmingly anti-Serb framework.
Such views help explain why images of Mladic continue to appear on murals, banners and at nationalist gatherings and why thousands were prepared to attend his funeral. They do not, however, represent Serbian society as a whole. Critics within Serbia have long challenged both the celebration of Mladic and attempts to minimize crimes committed by Bosnian Serb forces.
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic has portrayed the public response to Mladic’s death as an emotional reaction among Serbs while also accusing Western countries of applying different standards to Serbian victims and perpetrators from other sides of the Yugoslav wars.
For Brussels, the issue goes beyond the reputation of one former general. Serbia remains an EU candidate country, and its handling of the wars of the 1990s continues to influence its relationship with neighboring states and the European Union.
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