Thousands Attend Mladic Funeral in Belgrade Despite EU Criticism
Thousands attended the burial of Ratko Mladić as Serbian officials defended the ceremony and EU leaders condemned it as glorification of a convicted war criminal.
- On Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, the body of Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic lay in state at the St. Luke Church in Belgrade as thousands of mourners gathered to honor the convicted war criminal who died last week.
- Mladic died at 84 on Aug. 27 while serving a life sentence for genocide, including orchestrating the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.
- Despite international condemnation, the Serbian government sent a plane to bring Mladic's remains to Belgrade, with soldiers carrying the flag-draped coffin as Patriarch Porfirije, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, prepared to lead the funeral with full military honors.
- European Union enlargement commissioner Marta Kos canceled a planned visit to protest the glorification, while President Aleksandar Vucic dismissed the criticism, accusing Kos of "lying" amid rising tensions.
- Vucic, who is not attending the funeral, has stepped up anti-Western rhetoric ahead of a high-stakes early parliamentary election expected next month as Serbia's European Union bid remains stalled due to democratic backsliding.
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(Istanbul=Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Dong-ho = As large crowds flocked to the funeral of Ratko Mladić, a key war criminal of the Bosnian War, criticism arose that he was being glorified...
Ratko Mladic's funeral took place in Belgrade on September 7. During the Bosnian War in 1992-1995, Mladic commanded the Serbian army. It besieged Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for three years, during which 11,000 people died and killed about 8,000 Bosnians in the city of Srebrenica. In November 2017, the Hague Tribunal sentenced Mladic, then 75 years old, to life imprisonment on charges of violating the laws or customs of war,…
The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church honors the war criminal Mladić. Thousands of people attend the funeral in Belgrade.
With military honours the war criminal Mladic was buried in Serbia. Thousands participated, including Serbian officials. The EU top reacted horrified. It was "Glorification of war criminals".
The former General Ratko Mladić, who died in prison in The Hague on 27 August, was honoured with a solemn funeral in Serbia. The EU criticised the celebrations as 'Glorification of war criminals'.
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