Thousands Attend Belgrade Funeral for Ratko Mladic

Thousands of people gathered in the Serbian capital of Belgrade to attend a funeral service with state honours for Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Serbian national military servicemen stood guard around Mladic’s coffin at the St Luka Church in Belgrade on September 7, 2026, as attendees from Serbia proper and Bosnia’s Republika Srpska arrived to pay their respects.

State Honours and Public Attendance

The funeral service was organized with state honours by the Serbian state. Members of the public, including visitors from across Serbia and Bosnian Serbs, assembled at the church in Belgrade to observe the event.

Mladic served as the military leader of Bosnian Serb forces during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s following the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

ICTY Convictions and Historical Background

Prior to his death, Mladic was tried and convicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. The tribunal found him guilty of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Among the key findings established in the ICTY judgments were Mladic’s leadership during the siege of Sarajevo and his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed.

Background

The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established in 1993 to prosecute grave violations of international humanitarian law committed during the Western Balkans wars. The conflicts involved widespread ethnic warfare, displacement, and mass atrocities as Yugoslavia broke apart into independent nations.