Serbia welcomes return of war criminal Mladic’s body with military honours

Ratko Mladic received a life sentence from a UN court for committing atrocities during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

Serbians display a banner reading 'general' as they greet a convoy carrying the body of Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic in Belgrade on September 3, 2026 [AFP]

The body of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic , who died last week while serving a life sentence for war crimes, has returned to Belgrade for burial, where it has been received with military honours.

The casket, draped in the national flag, was carried on Thursday on board a Serbian government plane that departed from The Hague, Netherlands, where the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was located before completing its mandate.

list 1 of 3 Convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic dies

list 2 of 3 Timeline: Life of Ratko Mladic, general turned ‘Butcher of Bosnia’

list 3 of 3 A year after student protests shook Valjevo: Serbia at a crossroads

Mladic, who was ⁠convicted in 2017 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, died last week in a UN detention facility aged 84. The UN court confirmed in a written statement that his remains had been handed over to his next of kin at Rotterdam The Hague Airport on Thursday afternoon.

The coffin was carried from the plane in Belgrade by six soldiers, accompanied by Mladic’s son, Darko, and Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic, who said Mladic’s family would announce funeral plans in the coming days.

Pro-government media said a military commemoration will be held on Saturday and the funeral on Monday. Vujic said Serbia’s police and the state security agency predicted that “tens of thousands” of people could attend the service.

Ratko Mladic, centre, with soldiers at the airport in Sarajevo on August 10, 1993, during the Bosnia War [File: Gabriel Bouys/AFP]

Many Serbs consider Mladic a hero despite his conviction by the UN tribunal.

Thousands of Serbs held vigils and marches in his honour, drawing condemnation in a volatile region that remains ethnically divided more than three decades after the wars that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

The Bosnian War broke out when Bosnia’s Serbs took control of large areas of the country to form their own state. Serbia, which backed the Bosnian Serbs during the war, accuses the West and The Hague tribunal of blaming only Serbs for the crimes and bringing no justice for its victims.

Mladic was one of the most notorious figures of the war in Bosnia, which killed more than 100,000 people and left over 1 million homeless before it ended in 1995 in a United States-brokered peace agreement.

Its massacre in Srebrenica was Europe’s first acknowledged genocide after World War II. The Bosnian city ended up being overrun by Serbs who forced Bosniak men and boys to strip, killed them and bulldozed their bodies into mass graves.

The tribunal in The Hague said it stood “in solidarity with the victims, survivors and their families who suffered the crimes for which Mr Mladic was found guilty”.

It condemned “any actions that glorify those convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by international courts”.

Serbia is formally seeking European Union entry but remains defiant over its war role. The EU’s enlargement commissioner warned that “the glorification of war criminals has no place in an EU member country nor in a candidate country.”

拉特科·姆拉迪奇因在 1992-1995 年波斯尼亚战争期间犯下暴行，被联合国法庭判处终身监禁。

2026年9月3日，塞尔维亚人在贝尔格莱德迎接运送波斯尼亚塞族战犯拉特科·姆拉迪奇遗体的车队时，展示了写着“将军”的横幅。[法新社]

前波斯尼亚塞族军队指挥官拉特科·姆拉迪奇的遗体已运回贝尔格莱德安葬。姆拉迪奇因战争罪行被判处终身监禁，上周在服刑期间去世。他的遗体受到了军礼迎接。

周四，覆盖着国旗的灵柩被送上一架塞尔维亚政府飞机，从荷兰海牙起飞。前南斯拉夫问题国际刑事法庭在完成其任务之前就设在海牙。

名单1/3：被判有罪的波斯尼亚塞族战犯拉特科·姆拉迪奇去世

列表 2/3 时间线：拉特科·姆拉迪奇的一生，从将军到“波斯尼亚屠夫”

列表 3/3 学生抗议活动震撼瓦列沃一年后：塞尔维亚正处于十字路口

姆拉迪奇于2017年被判犯有种族灭绝罪、反人类罪和战争罪，这些罪行是在1992年至1995年波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那战争期间犯下的。他上周在联合国拘留设施中去世，享年84岁。联合国法庭在一份书面声明中证实，他的遗体已于周四下午在鹿特丹海牙机场移交给他的近亲。

棺材由六名士兵从贝尔格莱德的飞机上抬下来，姆拉迪奇的儿子达尔科和塞尔维亚司法部长内纳德·武伊奇陪同在侧。武伊奇表示，姆拉迪奇的家人将在未来几天宣布葬礼安排。

亲政府媒体称，周六将举行军事纪念活动，周一举行葬礼。武伊奇表示，塞尔维亚警方和国家安全机构预测，可能有“数万人”参加葬礼。

1993 年 8 月 10 日，波斯尼亚战争期间，拉特科·姆拉迪奇（中）与士兵在萨拉热窝机场。[图片：Gabriel Bouys/AFP]

尽管姆拉迪奇被联合国法庭定罪，但许多塞尔维亚人仍然认为他是英雄。

数千名塞尔维亚人举行守夜和游行来纪念他，这在动荡不安的地区引起了谴责。尽管前南斯拉夫解体后的战争已经过去了三十多年，但该地区仍然存在种族分裂。

波斯尼亚战争爆发的起因是波斯尼亚塞族人控制了该国大片地区，建立了自己的国家。塞尔维亚在战争期间支持波斯尼亚塞族人，指责西方国家和海牙法庭只将罪行归咎于塞族人，而没有为受害者伸张正义。

姆拉迪奇是波斯尼亚战争中最臭名昭著的人物之一，这场战争造成超过 10 万人死亡，100 多万人流离失所，最终于 1995 年在美国斡旋下达成和平协议而结束。

斯雷布雷尼察大屠杀是二战后欧洲首例被公认为种族灭绝的事件。这座波斯尼亚城市最终被塞尔维亚人占领，他们强迫波斯尼亚族男子和男孩脱光衣服，杀害他们，并将尸体用推土机推入万人坑。

海牙法庭表示，它“与受害者、幸存者及其家人站在一起，他们遭受了姆拉迪奇先生被判有罪的罪行”。

它谴责“任何美化被国际法庭判处犯有战争罪、反人类罪和种族灭绝罪的人的行为”。

塞尔维亚正式寻求加入欧盟，但对其在战争中的角色仍态度强硬。欧盟扩大事务专员警告说，“无论是在欧盟成员国还是候选国，都绝无美化战争罪犯的余地。”