Key facts
- The body of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic has been returned to Belgrade, Serbia.
- Mladic died last week at age 84 while serving a life sentence for genocide and war crimes.
- A Serbian government plane transported his coffin, which was draped in a Serbian flag.
- His funeral is expected to draw tens of thousands of attendees.
- European officials have cautioned that a state funeral could harm Serbia's EU accession bid.
The body of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander convicted of genocide and war crimes, was returned to Belgrade on Thursday via a Serbian government plane. Mladic, who died last week at age 84 in a UN detention facility in The Hague, is expected to receive a large funeral.
The plane landed at Belgrade airport carrying Mladic's coffin, accompanied by his son, granddaughter, and Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic. Serbian soldiers transferred the coffin to a van, which media reports indicate will take it to a military hospital for an autopsy.
While a Serbian government minister initially suggested a state funeral, this has not been confirmed following criticism from European leaders. EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos stated that glorifying a war criminal goes against European values and could jeopardize Serbia's EU aspirations. Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic echoed this sentiment, warning that a state funeral would close the door to the European Union.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic anticipates tens of thousands of attendees at the funeral, scheduled for Monday, with a commemoration ceremony to be held on Saturday. Mladic was found guilty by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where approximately 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed, and for the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, which resulted in about 10,000 deaths. Despite his convictions, he remains a revered figure among many Serbs.
The UN war crimes court is conducting a routine investigation into the circumstances of Mladic's death.