Convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic given hero-like funeral in Serbia
Thousands gathered in Belgrade for the funeral of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general convicted of orchestrating the Srebrenica genocide. The turnout has drawn attention for treating a convicted war criminal with what appeared to be honors typically reserved for a hero.
A large crowd gathered in Belgrade for the funeral of Ratko Mladic, the former commander of Bosnian Serb forces who was convicted by an international tribunal of orchestrating the Srebrenica genocide, one of the deadliest atrocities in Europe since World War II.
Thousands of people attended the funeral ceremony in the Serbian capital, a turnout that gave the event the character of a hero's send-off despite Mladic having been found guilty by international judges of responsibility for the deaths of thousands of people.
Background
Mladic led Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. He was convicted for his central role in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, in which thousands of Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed. His conviction has stood as one of the most significant international war crimes rulings related to the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
The scale of public turnout at his funeral underscores how divisive and emotionally charged his legacy remains in Serbian society more than three decades after the war ended.
