Burying Mladic: Were no lessons learned?

By Sir Geoffrey Nice. Published On 8 Sep 20268 Sep 2026.

What happened

Today, thousands gathered in the Serbian capital Belgrade to pay their respects to Ratko Mladic, the head of the Bosnian Serb army. This person was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Anyone glorifying Mladic is approving mass murder of thousands of innocent individuals. What should we then create of the Serbian state that organised a funeral with state honours for him? Or of the Serbs from Serbia proper and the Bosnian Serbs who attended it?

The bottom line

Taken together, the developments around burying Mladic: Were no lessons learned? Point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.