Serbia to Honor Ratko Mladić at Burial After 84-Year-Old Convicted General Dies in Hague
Updated
Updated · CNN · Aug 28
Serbia to Honor Ratko Mladić at Burial After 84-Year-Old Convicted General Dies in Hague
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Aug 28
Summary
Serbia said Ratko Mladić will be buried with the “highest military and state honors” after the convicted Bosnian-Serb general died Thursday at 84 in the UN detention unit in The Hague.
15 years into a life sentence, Mladić died after months of worsening health; Justice Minister Nenad Vujić said the family will decide the burial site, and President Aleksandar Vučić said Serbia would organize it if they choose burial there.
The honors plan drew immediate backlash from Serbia’s pro-European opposition and from Bosniak-Croat officials in Bosnia, while nationalists in Serbia and Republika Srpska praised Mladić and held memorial events.
More than 10,000 people died in the siege of Sarajevo and over 7,000 Muslims were killed at Srebrenica—atrocities that led The Hague tribunal to convict Mladić of genocide and other war crimes.
Vujić said he will seek an investigation into Mladić’s death and detention conditions; the UN tribunal’s successor body said a full inquiry would be opened, while Russia also criticized his treatment.