Thousands Mourn in Belgrade as Serbia Defies EU Warnings at Ratko Mladic Funeral

Belgrade — The body of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander convicted of genocide and war crimes, lay in state on Monday as Serbia openly defied European Union warnings against publicly honouring the man found guilty of the continent’s first genocide case since World War II.

Thousands of mourners gathered early at the small Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Luke in the capital to pay their respects to Mladic, who remains viewed as a hero by many Serbs. His military officer’s cap and sabre rested atop the coffin, flanked by men in fatigues.

Pro-government media reported that Mladic will receive full military honours at the funeral, with Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church leading the service.

“He was a man who gave everything in his life for the Serbian people,” said Milan Dobric, a mourner who travelled from Kosovo for the ceremony. “I am glad that people are coming this morning to pay special respect.”

Mladic died on August 27 at the age of 84 in The Hague, Netherlands, while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his forces during the Bosnian War of 1992–1995.

Although funeral arrangements were formally handled by Mladic’s family, the Serbian government dispatched a military plane last week to transport his remains to Belgrade. Soldiers carried his coffin draped in the national flag, and a military commemoration was held Saturday at an official army venue.

The proceedings have drawn sharp criticism from Brussels. Marta Kos, the EU enlargement commissioner, cancelled an upcoming visit to Serbia in protest, stating that “the glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built.”

Other European officials, regional leaders and relatives of Mladic’s victims from the Bosnian War also voiced condemnation. The conflict, which ended in 1995 under a US-brokered peace agreement, left more than 100,000 people dead and over one million homeless.

Serbia, a candidate country for EU membership, has faced sustained criticism for its treatment of Mladic’s legacy. President Aleksandar Vucic, a former extreme nationalist who dismissed EU criticism and accused Kos of “lying,” has escalated his anti-Western rhetoric ahead of parliamentary elections expected next month. Vucic is not attending the funeral.

Mladic was sentenced in 2017 for orchestrating the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, the yearslong siege of Sarajevo, and other atrocities including the operation of concentration camps for non-Serb civilians and prisoners of war.

Since Mladic’s death, nationalist admirers have held vigils, painted murals bearing his image across Belgrade and lit flares in his honour. Serbia continues to refuse to recognise the Srebrenica killings as genocide, instead describing them as a “horrific crime.” Last year, the country buried another convicted war criminal, former army chief of staff Nebojsa Pavkovic, with full military honours.

Serbia’s EU accession process has been stalled by democratic backsliding and Vucic’s refusal to support international sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Srebrenica, a UN-declared safe haven for Bosniaks, fell to Serb forces who forced men and boys to strip before executing them and burying their bodies in mass graves — a crime the International Court of Justice has ruled constituted genocide.

The war erupted following the breakup of Yugoslavia, when ethnic Serbs in Bosnia seized control of large territories to establish their own entity and unify it with Serbia.