War criminal Ratko Mladic to be buried in Belgrade
Mladic died in late August aged 84 while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1990s war in Bosnia.
A man walks past a mural depicting former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, who is due to be buried at Belgrade's Topcider Cemetery on September 7, 2026, amid EU criticism over the "glorification" of a war criminal convicted of genocide, in Belgrade on September 6, 2026. Mladic died last week after suffering several strokes while serving a life sentence in The Hague for war crimes committed during the 1990s war in Bosnia. (Credit: AFP)
BELGRADE — Convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic is to be buried in Belgrade on Monday at a ceremony expected to draw thousands despite international condemnation.
Mladic died in late August aged 84 while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1990s war in Bosnia.
His body will be displayed in a church for five hours before a ceremony and a procession to a nearby cemetery.
His casket was flown to Serbia on Thursday aboard a government plane, draped in national flags and welcomed with military honours.
As it was driven from the airport, mostly young men gathered on motorway overpasses, displaying banners honouring Mladic and lighting flares, while some police officers were seen saluting the convoy.
Backlash
The European Union enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, cancelled a forthcoming visit to Serbia, saying the "glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built".
"This has unforeseeable consequences for the future of the entire region," he wrote on Facebook on Friday.
Mladic's wartime atrocities during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia earned him the nickname "Butcher of Bosnia" in international media.
The 1992-1995 war left around 100,000 people dead and displaced 2.2 million.\
Mladic was the military figurehead of the Bosnian Serb leadership alongside former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
The United Nations war crimes court convicted him of genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where Bosnian Serb forces killed around 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in a UN-protected safe zone.
The atrocity was Europe's worst act of bloodshed since World War II.
Fadila Efendic, whose son and husband were killed in Srebrenica, told AFP earlier that it pained her "to know that his ideas are not dead".
Mladic was also convicted of persecuting and forcibly expelling Bosnian Muslims and Croats, terrorising civilians during the siege of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage during NATO air strikes in 1995.
Mladić was arrested in 2011, 16 years after he was first indicted, and sentenced to life in prison in 2021 after a nine-year trial.
Despite the verdicts, he is still hailed as a hero by some Serbs, particularly in Bosnia's Serb statelet, Republika Srpska, where his death was marked with vigils and gatherings.
Many from the entity have applied to travel to Belgrade for the funeral.
Mladic's son Darko, who is officially organising the funeral, said he was "proud of the role" played by his father.
On Saturday, around 300 people gathered at a commemoration for Mladic at a military facility in Belgrade, organised by an association of retired and active Serbian army generals.
Darko and other family members also attended, as well as Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic and officials from Republika Srpska, including President Sinisa Karan.
Speakers at the ceremony praised Mladić's wartime role, describing him as a "towering figure both as a man and a soldier".
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that tens of thousands of people were expected to attend the funeral and that the state would ensure the event passed "safely".
He would not attend in person due to a prior engagement, he explained.