Butcher of Bosnia Returns Home — Serbia Gives Him Military Honours

Ratko Mladic, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," was one of Europe's most-wanted war criminals. A UN tribunal convicted him of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, including the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. He was serving a life sentence when he died last week in a UN detention facility at age 84.

On Thursday, Mladic's body arrived in Serbia, where it was received with military honours. Six soldiers carried his flag-draped coffin from the plane, joined by his son Darko and Serbia's Justice Minister Nenad Vujic. The body was then driven under police escort to a Belgrade military hospital. Pro-government media broadcast images of crowds, mostly young men, standing on motorway bridges, holding banners that honoured Mladic and setting off flares as the convoy drove by.

A public funeral service is reportedly planned for Monday, though officials have not confirmed the details. The scene has shocked many outside Serbia, where Mladic is still seen by some as a war hero rather than a convicted criminal. The warm reception highlights how the legacy of the Balkan wars remains unsettled. For victims' families and human rights groups, the celebrations feel like an insult to the dead and a worrying sign that nationalist narratives still thrive in parts of the region.

This event is not just about one man's funeral. It raises questions about how countries remember war criminals and whether international justice can hold when national leaders choose to glorify those convicted of atrocities. The European Union and others will be watching closely, because honouring Mladic may hurt Serbia's chances of joining the EU and deepen ethnic tensions in Bosnia and the wider Balkans.