Thousands attend Belgrade funeral for war criminal Ratko Mladić as EU warns Serbia

The mothers of Srebrenica described the funeral as a "disgrace" and called on international institutions to act, as thousands of mourners gathered in Belgrade on Monday for the burial of Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mladić, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia" for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo, died in The Hague last month at the age of 84 while serving a life sentence. His coffin was flown to Serbia on a government plane, draped in national flags and carried from the aircraft by uniformed soldiers.

The ceremony at St Luka church in Belgrade included a display of his military cap and sword on the casket, and a street procession to Topcider cemetery where he was buried with military honours, including a three-volley rifle salute. Armed forces stood guard as Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church led the service, saying Mladić's name would remain "deeply etched in the memory and prayers of the majority of our Serbian Orthodox people."

Serbian ministers, Russia's ambassador, and the former president of the Bosnian Serb entity Milorad Dodik attended, but President Aleksandar Vučić did not, citing a prior engagement. His son Danilo was present. The government had initially announced state honours for Mladić, but scaled back the plans after objections from European leaders.

The European Union condemned the event. "Any glorification of war criminals, genocide denial and revisionism contradict the most fundamental European values and have no place in the EU or in EU candidate countries," an EU spokesperson said in a statement on Monday. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos cancelled a planned visit to Serbia, calling the return of Mladić's remains "a reminder of the darkest pages in our recent history."

Serbia has been negotiating EU accession since 2014, but the process has stalled. The funeral raised fresh questions about the country's path to membership, as pro-government media provided glowing coverage of the event and football fans displayed Mladić's image at a match the previous night.

Mladić was convicted in 2017 of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre, in which about 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed, and for crimes during the siege of Sarajevo that left more than 10,000 dead. He was arrested in 2011 after 16 years on the run and sentenced to life in prison.

For survivors, the ceremony reopened wounds. Zdravka Gvozdjar, whose nine-year-old son was killed by Mladić-led forces during the siege, told Reuters it was "really horrible" that the funeral was taking place in Belgrade. Mladić "deserved to be erased from memory for good, not to be... promoted as a hero," she said.

Analysts say the public reverence reflects a failure by Serbian media and education to confront the scale of his crimes. "The war crimes tribunal provided an incredibly detailed historical record of Mladić's crimes, but the Serbian media and education system has not reflected the true scale of his crimes or the perspectives of victims and survivors," said Daniella Peled, editor at the Institute of War and Peace Reporting.

The funeral was not an official state event, but its military trappings and the presence of government figures drew sharp criticism from the international community and deepened divisions within Serbia over how to remember the Bosnian war and its convicted architects.