The former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, nicknamed “the butcher of the Balkans” for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, will have a funeral with “all the military and state honors he is entitled to.” This was announced by the Serbian Minister of Justice, Nenad Vujic, on local radio K1. Gravely ill for months, Mladic died on Thursday, August 27 in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
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“We are ready to leave for The Hague as soon as we know what the next steps will be, in full respect of all the wishes of General Mladić’s family, with whom we in the government are in regular contact,” Vujić said, adding that it will be the family to decide everything regarding Mladić’s funeral. “It is up to them to decide. It is certain that General Mladic will receive all the military and state honors he is entitled to when it comes to state honors. The family will decide the location,” the minister said.
Speaking then about the requests that Mladić could spend his last days in Serbia, with his family, Vujić stated that since August 20 four letters have been sent and that warnings were issued from the start about Mladić’s health being at risk. “Unfortunately, yesterday, just as we were finalizing the letter to the United Nations Secretary-General, in which we spoke about the need for his intervention, the sad news of the general’s passing arrived,” Vujić said. The minister stated that after medical assessments on the severity of Mladić’s condition, it was legitimate to raise the issue of humanitarian treatment for a person in the terminal stages of life.
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“It is legitimate to raise the issue of humanity. Already after the first medical report, not prepared by independent experts or Serbian doctors, but by the doctors of the penitentiary hospital, we had received information about the need for palliative care. They even emphasized the importance of the family appearing as soon as possible. All signs indicated that the end was near,” the minister said. According to Vujić, Serbia immediately requested Mladic’s release for humanitarian reasons, emphasizing that when a person is in such an advanced stage of life, the purpose of punishment loses its meaning.
“These are also international standards, it is well known. Then there is the primary humanitarian aspect, especially when life is measured in days. In these cases, palliative care is used, which includes not only medical therapy but also a family environment, so that a seriously ill person can spend their last days with their family. These are medical and humanitarian rules,” Vujić emphasized.
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