COS Commissioner: 'Glorifying dead war criminals is incompatible with EU values'

Commissioner Kos: “Glorifying dead war criminals is incompatible with EU values”

(Brussels = Yonhap News) Correspondent Hyun Yoon-kyung = European Union (EU) enlargement commissioner Marta Kos canceled her visit to Serbia in protest at the plan to hold a state-honored funeral for Ratko Mladic, a key war criminal in the Bosnian civil war who died in prison last week.

According to dpa news agency, Commissioner Kos posted a post on the social media platform

“The values ​​that underpin our common future are non-negotiable. In this context, we have decided not to proceed with our planned visit to Serbia at this time,” Kos added.

Mladic gained notoriety as the “Butcher of the Balkans” by leading the brutal “ethnic cleansing” of Muslim residents during the Bosnian civil war that lasted from 1992 to 1995. Arrested after 16 years on the run after the end of the civil war, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in 2017 and died at the age of 84 on the 27th while serving his sentence at a UN detention facility in The Hague, Netherlands.

Fingered as a war criminal by the international community, he is still revered as a national hero in Serbia and Republika Srpska, an autonomous Serb region in Bosnia.

In Republika Srpska, all-night vigils were held in various places upon news of his death, and when the coffin containing Mladic's body was transported to Belgrade by military aircraft on the 3rd, citizens were seen flocking to the streets to pay their respects. Serbian troops also welcomed Mladic's coffin wrapped in the Serbian flag with courtesy.

Although Mladic was of Bosnian Serb descent, he had a close relationship with the Serbian army, receiving a salary from the Serbian army and receiving a pension from the Serbian army after the war.

Mladic's son, Darko, announced at a press conference held with Serbia's Minister of Justice that Mladic's funeral would be held in Belgrade on the 7th and said, "I will tell the world that I am proud of my father's role."

However, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, apparently aware of the tensions with the EU surrounding Mladic's honor, announced that he would not attend Mladic's funeral, citing the reason that it overlaps with official schedules.

Serbia has been negotiating accession with the EU since 2014, but there has been no progress in recent years since President Vucic came to power.