The European Union’s Enlargement Commissioner has pulled out of a planned visit to Serbia following what she described as the glorification of Ratko Mladić, a former Bosnian Serb military commander convicted of genocide. The cancellation has exposed deep rifts between Belgrade and Brussels over Serbia’s EU membership ambitions.
Marta Kos announced her decision on Friday after Mladić’s remains arrived in Belgrade aboard a Serbian government plane from The Hague. The body was received with military honors. Serbian solrs carried his coffin, wrapped in the national flag, while Justice Minister Nenad Vujic accompanied family members on the flight. Nationalist supporters lit flares as the convoy departed.
What makes this funeral so controversial? Mladić was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017 for orchestrating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre that ed over 8,000 Muslims. He also faced convictions for the siege of Sarajevo and elishing concentration camps during Bosnia’s 1992 to 1995 war.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić dismissed Kos’s concerns as “very short but ,” questioning who exactly had glorified the former commander. His son announced that military commemorations would take place Saturday, with the burial scheduled for Monday. Thousands of mourners are expected to attend, echoing last week’s vigils held across Serbia and parts of Bosnia.
Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot called the honors “shameful and disrespectful for the victims.” Council of Europe Commissioner Michael O’Flaherty urged Serbian authorities to counter such glorification, which violates Bosnian law. Serbia’s defiance continues to complicate its formal bid for European Union membership.
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