Ratko Mladić died amid calls for state funeral in Serbia and Republika Srpska; Institutionalised glorification of war criminals.
Ratko Mladić’s death | Pro Peace
What matters now is how societies in the Western Balkans deal with his legacy
Mladić was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. These facts have been established before international courts and extensively documented. The immediate challenge is therefore not to revisit his biography, but to look closely at what has happened since his death is deeply concerning: calls for a state funeral, calls for public mourning, and political actors, media and different parts of society across the region are honouring Ratko Mladić as a hero. These reactions tell us about dealing with the violent past more than thirty years after the war.
“Dealing with the past is not about keeping societies trapped in the past. It is about recognising established facts, respecting victims and creating the conditions in which violence and exclusion are not justified again through the same nationalist narratives,” says Kristen Schubert, Pro Peace Head of Programmes Western Balkans . “The reactions to Ratko Mladić’s death show why this work remains necessary. Peace and democratic change require space for critical public debate, empathy with victims and a clear rejection of the glorification of war crimes.”
In Serbia, supporters have publicly honoured Mladić, several politicians have called for a state or military funeral and a day of mourning. In Republika Srpska, political leaders have again praised him as a commander who fought for the freedom of the Serbian people.
These reactions matter beyond the question of how one individual is remembered. They affect survivors and victims’ families, returnees and communities that continue to live alongside competing and often mutually exclusive accounts of the wars. They also show that denial, relativisation and glorification of convicted war criminals remain part of present-day political life.
“The glorification of Ratko Mladić is not a marginal phenomenon. It has become institutionalised and is sustained by political actors in Serbia and Republika Srpska who continue to present a convicted war criminal as a hero and to deny or relativise the genocide in Srebrenica. The failure of institutions to respond consistently to genocide denial and the glorification of war criminals has allowed these narratives to become normalised. Mladić’s death does not end this problem, because the political narratives built around him remain very much alive,” says Denis Džidić, Balkan Investigative Research Network (BIRN) Bosnia and Herzegovina.
For civil society actors in Serbia, Mladić’s death does not close the debate over his legacy. The central question is how Serbian society and its institutions confront the crimes for which he was convicted, and the continued denial and glorification surrounding them.
“The question remains how we will remember and position ourselves towards the crimes Ratko Mladić was convicted for. In Serbia, denial and glorification of war criminals became part of official state policy and we believe this is deeply worrisome. However, the past is always the story we are telling ourselves, but the facts cannot be undone and that legacy will leave and serve any future generation that would like to question the dominant narrative,” Sofia Todorović, Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) Serbia emphasises.
Mladić’s death will inevitably reopen painful memories. The question for the region is what happens with those memories now: whether they are used to deepen division and denial, or to strengthen an honest confrontation with the past and responsibility for preventing further violence.
GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG IBAN: DE90 4306 0967 4103 7264 00