Ratko Mladic (AA Photo)
Serbia's Justice Minister Nenad Vujic said on Aug. 28 that former Bosnian Serb military leader and convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic "will receive all the military and state honors to which he is entitled."
Mladic died on Aug. 27 while serving a life sentence in The Hague for war crimes committed during the 1990s Bosnian war.
"It is certain that General Mladic will receive all the military and state honors to which he is entitled, as far as the state is concerned," Vujic told the K1 broadcaster.
Serbian officials were awaiting details on when authorities in The Hague would release the body, he said.
Mladic, who had suffered several strokes in recent months, was serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian war, including for his role in the Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst act of bloodshed since World War II.
His conviction for the wartime killings as the former Yugoslavia descended into carnage after the fall of communism led the international press to dub him the "Butcher of Bosnia".
The 1992-1995 war left around 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million displaced.
Mladic was the military face of a brutal trio, led on the political side by ex-Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
