Thousands turn out in Serbia for funeral of 'Butcher of Bosnia' Ratko Mladić

What the report says

Thousands of people gathered in Belgrade, Serbia, for the funeral of Ratko Mladić, the former Bosnian Serb military commander convicted of genocide and other crimes over atrocities committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. BBC World News reported that Mladić died at 84 while serving a life sentence in The Hague after a UN tribunal found him responsible for the Srebrenica massacre and other wartime abuses.

The service drew a large crowd of supporters, including war veterans and people carrying flags and images of Mladić. Serbian media and local officials reported that several government ministers attended, while the Serbian Orthodox Church led the ceremony. The article said Mladić’s coffin had been brought back to Serbia on a government plane, and free buses were arranged from Bosnia and towns across Serbia for mourners.

The funeral prompted criticism from the European Union, which warned against glorifying a convicted war criminal. That dispute reflects the wider postwar divide over Mladić’s legacy: many Serbs still view him as a defender of the nation, while survivors and victims’ families see his public honoring as deeply painful. The BBC noted that the tribunal’s verdicts created a detailed record of the crimes, but that debate over responsibility and memory remains unresolved in parts of the region.