Serbia gives military honours to ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ Ratko Mladic

Serbia has given military honours to Bosnian Serb war criminal General Ratko Mladic, who died aged 84 last week at a prison hospital in The Hague.

Mladic, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia,” was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnian War and sentenced to life imprisonment.

His body arrived in Serbia from The Hague on Thursday, draped in the Serbian flag and carried by six soldiers. It was later taken under police escort to a military hospital in Belgrade, where an examination will be conducted to determine the cause of death before the body is handed over to his family.

Mladic commanded Bosnian Serb forces during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed. The massacre was the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic had said last week that Mladic would be given a state-honoured farewell.

The European Union criticised the decision, saying there was no place in Europe for criminals such as Mladic or for the crimes they committed.

Mladic was arrested in a Serbian village in May 2011 after years in hiding and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The tribunal convicted him in 2017 and sentenced him to life imprisonment. His appeal was rejected in 2021.

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