“The glorification of war criminals has no place; it goes really, really strong against European values and has no space, not in the EU member states, but also in our candidates,” she said.
“We are observing the situation very carefully … and we will see what will happen in [the] next days and we also see the actions of the government,” Kos added. “There is for sure a place for Serbia in the EU, but [the EU] demands not just doing the reforms. The strategic alliances or strategic orientation on the field of common security and foreign policy is getting even more and more important.”
A Serbian government official, granted anonymity to speak frankly, insisted the state was not directly involved in Monday’s proceedings. “The commemorative gathering is being organized not by the Ministry of Defense or the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, but by the Association of Retired Generals,” they said, adding that Mladić will not receive the honor of being buried in either the Alley of the Greats or the Alley of Distinguished Citizens.
Under Mladić’s command, the Bosnian Serb Army laid siege to Sarajevo for almost four years, cutting off supplies to the civilian population and turning its streets into sniper lanes in which thousands of civilians were shot. Mladić was found to be responsible by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for the massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, as well as atrocities committed by his troops across the country.
The 2011 capture of Mladić, who had been in hiding for almost a decade, came months before Serbia was awarded EU candidate status, paving the way for significant financial and administrative support from the bloc. The decision to extradite him to face justice in The Hague was controversial in Serbia, with polling at the time showing as many as 40 percent of Serbs viewed him as a hero.
Tributes were held in majority-Serb towns and cities across Bosnia following his death. Prominent Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said “Mladić was respected by the Serbian people. As a commander he stood to defend Serbs.”