Thousands mourn war criminal Ratko Mladić in Belgrade

Thousands of people in Serbia said goodbye to the war criminal Ratko Mladić, who died in custody. The funeral service took place on Monday in the small church of St. Luka in the Serbian capital Belgrade. In view of the celebrations, the EU condemned the "glorification of war criminals" in Serbia, which wants to become an EU member.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who canceled his participation in the funeral for scheduling reasons, rejected allegations of glorification of the former general. The funeral service was organized by Mladić's family, he emphasized. The state will only ensure that the event is safe. St. Luke's Church is significantly smaller than St. Sava's Cathedral in central Belgrade, where state funerals usually take place.

The process

After the funeral service, the coffin was carried outside by soldiers, where thousands of people waited and lined the streets. A banner opposite the church read: "Welcome General, thanks be given to your mother for giving birth to a hero, so that the glory of Serbdom may return." Many of them waved flags with the general's face. Flags of the Bosnian Serb republic Republika Srpska were also on display. There, despite his condemnation, Mladić continues to be revered as a “hero” by Serbian nationalists.

The procession then slowly moved towards the nearby Topčider cemetery, where Mladić was buried next to his daughter. The 23-year-old committed suicide during the Bosnian War in 1994, according to some reports out of shame over her father's crimes.

Mothers of Srebrenica: “A shame”

"Thank you, brothers, for coming to decide whether my father was a hero or a criminal," said Darko Mladić before the coffin was lowered into the grave. The crowd, many of them war veterans and young men, responded by chanting, “Hero! Hero!”

The former Bosnian Serb army chief died on August 27 at the age of 84 in a hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, where he was serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. His name is inextricably linked to the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, in which Bosnian Serb troops under his command stormed the UN safe zone and murdered around 8,000 Muslim men and boys.