Serbian national military servicemen fire a three-volley salute during the funeral of war criminal Ratko Mladic, who died last week while serving a life sentence for genocide and other atrocities during the war in Bosnia, at the Topcider Cemetery, in Belgrade, Serbia, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo)
The European Union has condemned the public glorification of Ratko Mladic after thousands attended the convicted war criminal’s funeral in Belgrade, which featured military honors and was joined by several Serbian government ministers.
The EU’s diplomatic service said Mladic’s crimes were among “the most heinous crimes known to humankind.”
“Any glorification of war criminals, genocide denial and revisionism contradict the most fundamental European values,” it said, adding that such acts had no place in the bloc or its candidate countries.
Serbia has been an EU candidate since 2012.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos earlier canceled a planned visit to the country over what she described as the glorification surrounding Mladic’s death.
The former Bosnian Serb military commander died on Aug. 27 at the age of 84 in a U.N. detention facility in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence.
Mourners began gathering early on Sept. 7 at Belgrade’s Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Luke, where Mladic’s coffin was placed on public display.
His military cap and saber rested on the coffin as uniformed soldiers and war veterans stood nearby.
Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije led the service, while large screens were installed outside the church for crowds unable to enter.
Although the ceremony was not formally designated a state funeral, the Serbian government had sent an aircraft to return Mladic’s body from the Netherlands, and soldiers carried his flag-draped coffin.
Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic and Justice Minister Nenad Vujic attended the funeral. President Aleksandar Vucic was absent, but his son Danilo was among the mourners.
Following the service, the coffin, draped in the flags of Serbia and Bosnia’s Serb entity Republika Srpska, was taken in procession to Topcider Cemetery.
Some supporters carried banners describing Mladic as a hero and chanted his name.
He was buried with military honors, including a three-volley rifle salute, beside his daughter Ana, who died in 1994.
The U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted Mladic in 2017 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. His life sentence was upheld on appeal in 2021.
The convictions included his role in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, in which more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed, and the siege of Sarajevo.
