NewzBELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The body of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander who died while serving a life sentence for war crimes, lay in state on Monday as Serbia defied European Union warnings against paying public homage to the man found guilty of the continent’s first case of genocide since World War II. Thousands of mourners arrived early at the small Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Luke in Belgrade to honor Mladic, who is still viewed as a hero by many Serbs.
His military officer’s cap and saber rested on the coffin, which was flanked by men in fatigues. Pro-government media in Serbia reported that Mladic will receive full military honors while the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, will lead the funeral service. Mladic “was a man who gave everything in his life for the Serbian people,” said Milan Dobric, a mourner who traveled from Kosovo for the funeral.
“I am glad that this morning people are coming to pay special respect.” Mladic died at 84 on Aug. 27 in The Hague, Netherlands, while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity his troops committed during the Bosnian war in 1992-95. While the funeral arrangements were formally made by Mladic’s family, the Serbian government sent a plane last week to bring his remains to Belgrade, and soldiers carried his coffin wrapped in the national flag.
A military commemoration was held Saturday at an official Serbian army venue. Serbia is a candidate nation for European Union membership and has faced strong criticism for honoring Mladic after his death. Marta Kos, the enlargement commissioner for the bloc, canceled an upcoming visit to Serbia in protest, arguing that “the glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built.” A number of other European officials joined the criticism, along with regional leaders and relatives of Mladic’s victims from the war in Bosnia.
The conflict left more than 100,000 people dead and over 1 million homeless before it ended in 1995 in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement. Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic, a former extreme nationalist who supported Serbia’s expansionist policies during the war, has dismissed EU criticism, accusing Kos of “lying.” Vucic, who is not attending the funeral, has stepped up his anti-Western rhetoric ahead of a high-stakes early parliamentary e…
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