BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC
The remains of former Republika Srpska Army commander Ratko Mladic – who died on Aug. 27 while serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide and other war crimes – arrived in Belgrade on Sept. 3 via a Serbian government aircraft.
Covered in the flags of Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbia, the casket was carried from the aircraft by six uniformed members of the Army of Serbia and delivered to Mladic’s son, Darko Mladic, at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport.
According to the media, Mladic’s remains will first be sent to the Military Medical Academy for an autopsy. While it was said that the family would announce the time and place of the funeral on Sept. 4, media have reported that Mladic will be buried at the capital’s Topcider Cemetery on Sept. 7, with a memorial held at the Serbian Army Center in downtown Belgrade on Sept. 5.
President Aleksandar Vucic has said that state security services estimate tens of thousands will attend the funeral and that the authorities must ensure everything unfolds safely.
Former Republika Srpska Army commander Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in 2021, after being found guilty in 2017 of genocide against Bosniaks in Srebrenica, crimes against humanity targeting Muslims and Croats in 15 municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorizing civilians during the siege of Sarajevo and taking U.N. peacekeepers hostage.
Mladic was 84 when he died at the medical unit of the United Nations detention facility in Scheveningen, near The Hague.
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