Top European Union officials say they are shocked by hero’s funeral Serbia gave to Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general who died while serving a life sentence for war crimes BRUSSELS -- Top European Union officials on Tuesday expressed shock after Serbia gave a hero’s funeral to Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb general who died while serving a life sentence for war crimes, and questioned Serbia’s fitness to join their bloc. Mladic was buried in Belgrade on Monday with military honors. The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, led the funeral service and Serbian army soldiers carried Mladic’s flag-draped coffin at the cemetery.
Several Serbian government ministers attended the service for the man known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” and found guilty of committing the continent’s first genocide since World War II. Mladic is still considered a hero by many Serbs. Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik and the Russian ambassador in Serbia, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, were among those present.
Vucic, a former extreme nationalist who supported Serbia’s expansionist policies during the wars that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s, described the funeral as an “emotional outpouring.” Serbia’s Justice Minister Nenad Vujic attended and stood with Mladic’s family. He said the authorities helped keep order at the funeral to make sure it passed in a “dignified” manner but that the family was in charge. Vucic has been walking a political tightrope.
He’s trying to rally supporters — many of them Mladic admirers — ahead of an early parliamentary election that could be held in late October without alienating the EU, which Serbia says it wants to join. Last week, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos warned that the funeral would be “a test” for Belgrade. She canceled an upcoming visit to Serbia, arguing that “the glorification” of Mladic’s death would be incompatible with EU values.
The EU traditionally hands down its annual enlargement report in late October or early November, laying out the progress that each of the candidate countries, including Serbia, is making toward membership and highlighting deficiencies. Von der Leyen is scheduled to tour the Western Balkans region just before the report is published. She usually visits each country, but no dates have been set for the visit, nor has any agenda been made public.
Asked what the consequences might be for Serbia’s EU membership, von der Leyen’s spokesperson said only: “we are looking into it.” Mladic’s funeral is unlikely to help Serbia’s cause. Its membership prospects were already damaged over democratic backsliding. In April, Kos warned Belgrade that it could lose access to around 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in EU funds as concern mounted about municipal election irregularities.
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