Serbian Officials Attend Memorial for Convicted War Criminal Ratko Mladic
4 sources across 3 countries · Germany · Hong Kong · Taiwan
Who reported this
- Der Spiegel
- Frankfurter Allgemeine
- South China Morning Post
- Taipei Times
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
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High ranking Serbian government members and officials from the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska attended a commemoration ceremony for Ratko Mladic in Belgrade on Saturday. The event, organized by an association of active and retired generals at a military facility, was attended by approximately 300 people, including Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic and Republika Srpska President Sinisa Karan. Mladic, who died last week at age 84 in a hospital in The Hague, is scheduled to be buried in Belgrade on Monday with military and state honors. Thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral.
Mladic was serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992 to 1995 war in Bosnia. He was specifically linked to the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where Bosnian Serb troops under his command killed approximately 8,000 Muslim men and boys. After 16 years on the run, he was arrested in 2011 and transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where his life sentence was finalized in 2021.
The events surrounding his death have caused diplomatic tension. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos canceled a planned visit to Serbia, stating that the glorification of Mladic is incompatible with EU values. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic dismissed these accusations as stupid, arguing that the government cannot ban a funeral or stop people from attending. Mladic's son, Darko, has alleged that the decision by the Hague tribunal to deny his father's release on health grounds amounted to murder.
Reporting on the event varied by political lean. Center left sources emphasized the brutality of the crimes by using the moniker Butcher of the Balkans and highlighted the contradiction between the honors given to Mladic and Serbia's EU candidacy. Center right sources focused more on the factual details of the ceremony and the official diplomatic reactions, while presenting the events as a point of international condemnation.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- These outlets emphasized the horror of the Srebrenica massacre and framed the honors as a glorification of a butcher.
- Centre-right
- These outlets focused on the official proceedings and the diplomatic friction between Brussels and Belgrade.
Sources
- Centre-left Der Spiegel: Serbia: High government members at commemoration ceremony for war criminal Ratko Mladić
- Centre-right Frankfurter Allgemeine: Death of war criminal: Serbian government members at memorial ceremony for Mladić
- Centre-right South China Morning Post: Commemoration held for late Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic
- Centre-left Taipei Times: War criminal Ratko Mladic to be buried tomorrow, son says
93% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.