The Body of Ratko Mladic, the Perpetrator of the Srebrenica Genocide, was Brought to Serbia

The body of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who was found guilty of the Srebrenica Genocide committed by the Serbian Army in 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was transported from the Netherlands to Serbia by a state plane.

Mladic's coffin, which was brought to the country accompanied by his son Darko and Serbian Minister of Justice Nenad Vujic, was welcomed with a military ceremony, wrapped in the flags of Serbia and the Republika Srpska entity.

'THEY OPENED PRAISING BANNER'

Mladic, nicknamed the "butcher of Bosnia", who was found guilty of genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment by the United Nations (UN) International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 2017 and died on August 27 after a long illness, was taken to a military hospital in Belgrade with a police escort after the military ceremony at the airport. As the convoy passed, dozens of people, mostly young men, were seen holding banners praising war criminal Mladic and lighting torches on the highway and on bridges.

'WE WILL BLOCK EU MEMBERSHIP'

Serbian Minister of Justice Nenad Vujic announced that Mladic, who is planned to be buried on Monday, September 7, will be buried with a military and state ceremony. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was content to say that the ceremony would be "in accordance with the wishes of Mladic's family". The Croatian government had announced that it would block Serbia's EU membership if Mladic was buried with a state ceremony.

IT CAUSED REACTIONS

Plans to bury Mladic, who was among the main responsible for war crimes against Muslim Bosnians and Catholic Croats during the war, with a state ceremony caused reactions in Croatia and the European Union, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday that the doors of the European Union (EU) would be closed to Serbia if Serbia organizes a funeral for war criminal Mladic with the highest level state and military honors.

EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos also criticized these plans and said, "Glorifying war criminals is against fundamental European values. There is no place for this in the EU and in countries aiming to become members of the union."