Genocidal struggle felony dubbed ‘butcher’ honoured with ‘hero’ funeral sparking rage
Convicted genocidal war criminal Ratko Mladić, the “Butcher of Bosnia”, is being honoured today with a lavish “hero’s funeral” in Belgrade after dying in UN custody
Ratko Mladić in 2021(Image: JERRY LAMPEN/EPA/Shutterstock)
One of modern history’s most despicable war criminal is being honoured in a lavish funeral ceremony today (September 7).
Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian Serb general branded the “Butcher of Bosnia”, has been given a hugely controversial send-off in Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, triggering international fury as nationalist crowds hailed a convicted war criminal as a hero.
Mladić died at the age of 84 on August 27, in a United Nations detention facility hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, where he was serving a life sentence after being convicted of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Upon his death, his body was flown back to Belgrade and is now being honoured with what critics called a “hero’s funeral” complete with military pomp.
People gathered for the funeral at the St. Luka Church, in Belgrade, Serbia(Image: AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Mladić was convicted in 2017 by the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on 10 counts. Judges ruled he was a key architect of “ethnic cleansing”; a brutal campaign to expel Bosnian Muslims, Croats and other non-Serbs in pursuit of an ethnically pure “Greater Serbia”.
More than 100,000 people died and millions were driven from their homes. His crimes included the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, where more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were systematically murdered after Serb forces overran the UN-designated “safe haven”.
In chilling footage, Mladić was seen handing out sweets and promising safety before victims were rounded up, shot and buried in mass graves. He also commanded the 1,460-day siege of Sarajevo – the longest in modern warfare – where civilians were pounded by shelling and sniper fire, killing more than 10,000 people, including children.
Serbian Patriarch Porfirije (C) conducts the funeral service(Image: Getty Images)
The tribunal also detailed detention camps involving torture, rape, starvation and executions, and the taking of UN peacekeepers as hostages, chained to targets as human shields. After 16 years on the run, Mladić was arrested in 2011 and jailed for life.
His remains were released to his family under standard rules and, at their request, returned to Serbia on September 3. However, the way it happened caused outrage.
Serbia dispatched an official state plane to the Netherlands to collect the body, Europe Western Balkans reported. Mladić’s son Darko, his granddaughter, and Serbia’s Justice Minister Nenad Vujić accompanied the coffin from Rotterdam The Hague Airport.
People attend the funeral at St. Luka Church on September 7, 2026 in Belgrade, Serbia(Image: Getty Images)
On arrival in Belgrade, the casket, draped in the Serbian flag, was reportedly carried off the aircraft by active-duty Serbian soldiers, loaded into a red van, and driven under heavy police escort to the Military Medical Academy for an autopsy. Early this morning, Mladić lay in state at the small Serbian Orthodox Church of St Luke in Belgrade’s Vidikovac neighbourhood.
The service was led by Patriarch Porfirije, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Thousands have been queuing the whole day for hours to pass the flag-draped coffin, topped with Mladić’s officer cap and sabre.
Streets have been hung with banners praising him, including one reading: “Welcome, General, thanks be to your mother for bearing a hero.” At midday, a huge procession moved to Topčider Cemetery, where Mladić was buried beside his daughter, who died by suicide in the 1990s.
People gather around the grave at the Topcider Cemetery, in Belgrade, Serbia(Image: AP Photo/)
Reports said free buses were organised from across Serbia and the Serb-run Republika Srpska region of Bosnia to bring supporters to the capital, with many attendees described as nationalists, veterans and military figures. Prominent mourners included hardline Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, Željka Cvijanović, and other Republika Srpska officials, plus Russia’s ambassador to Serbia.
Populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and top ministers stayed away from the service itself, letting officials describe it as a “private” family funeral, even as soldiers were photographed carrying the coffin and standing guard. The European Union condemned the spectacle, warning Serbia, an EU candidate country, that glorifying war criminals and denying genocide is incompatible with European values.
EU enlargement chief Marta Kos reportedly cancelled a Serbia visit in protest, the Guardian reported. Even football got dragged in, as Red Star Belgrade fans staged public tributes, including a stadium tifo and a minute’s silence the night before, as the city wrestled with grief for victims – and celebrations by Mladić’s supporters.
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