Ratko Mladić’s remains expected to return to Serbia

Ratko Mladić’s remains are expected to be brought to Serbia on Thursday after his relatives collected the body from The Hague, LRT reported, citing Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

“According to the information I have, the body was collected and should arrive in Serbia in the late afternoon,” Vučić told reporters. He said the state would provide Mladić’s family with “all logistical and transport assistance.”

Neither Mladić’s son, Darko, nor the Hague court confirmed that the body had been handed over.

Mladić died last week while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian war. The court had ordered a detailed investigation into the circumstances of his death, which was supposed to be completed before his family collected the body.

Mladić had suffered several strokes in recent months. He was convicted of atrocities committed during the war, in which about 100,000 people were killed and 2.2 million were forced to leave their homes. He became known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, particularly because of the events in Srebrenica, described in the report as Europe’s worst atrocity since the Second World War.

Vučić said he expected “tens of thousands of people” to attend Mladić’s funeral. Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujić said last week that Mladić would receive “all the military and state honours to which he is entitled”, while Vučić said only that the funeral would be dignified and organised according to the family’s wishes.

Marta Kos, the European commissioner responsible for enlargement, criticised plans for a state-level funeral. “When it comes to Ratko Mladić, glorifying war criminals is contrary to fundamental European values and has no place either in the European Union or in countries seeking to join it,” Kos said in Slovenia on Monday.