Ratko Mladic funeral draws thousands, EU condemnation

Thousands of people attended the funeral of convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic in Belgrade on Monday, drawing renewed European Union condemnation over the glorification of a man convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mladic died in late August aged 84 while serving a life sentence in The Hague. His funeral was held at St Luka church, rather than the Saint Sava temple normally used for state funerals. His son Darko Mladic, who officially organised the funeral, stood by the casket as mourners filed past.

After the casket had been on display for hours, Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Porfirije held a service. Soldiers then carried the casket outside, where crowds waved flags bearing Mladic's face and Serbian and Republika Srpska tricolours. AFP journalists and aerial footage put the crowds in the area in the thousands as the procession moved toward Topcider cemetery.

Several Serbian ministers attended, along with Russia's ambassador to Serbia and former Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said earlier that the state would ensure the event passed safely but that he would not attend because of a prior engagement.

Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic had initially announced military and state honours for Mladic, prompting international criticism, before Vucic tempered the decision. Vucic has rejected accusations that Serbia was glorifying Mladic, saying the service followed the family's wishes.

An EU spokesman said Monday that “any glorification of war criminals, genocide denial and revisionism” contradicted fundamental European values and had no place in the EU or in candidate countries. EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos had earlier cancelled a planned visit to Serbia, saying glorification around Mladic's death was incompatible with EU values.

The United Nations war crimes court convicted Mladic of genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which Bosnian Serb forces killed around 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in a UN-protected safe zone. He was also convicted of persecuting and forcibly expelling Bosnian Muslims and Croats, terrorising civilians during the siege of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage during NATO air strikes in 1995.

The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia left around 100,000 people dead and displaced 2.2 million.