BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday accused a war crimes U.N. court in The Hague of “uncivilized behavior” for refusing to grant an early release for the former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who died Thursday at the age of 84 while serving a life sentence for his crimes.
Mladic’s family and the Serbian government had requested several times that Mladic be released, citing his age and ailing health. He died a week after the U.N. rejected his latest request for release on humanitarian grounds. In an Aug. “For us, it is important that he is convicted and that he served his sentence until he died. The reports sparked outrage throughout the region.
The U.N. tribunal for war crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s sentenced Mladic to life in prison in 2017 in what was considered a key step toward bringing justice to the victims. He had been in custody since 2011. Fazila Efendic, who lost several members of her family in the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica , which is Europe’s first acknowledged genocide since World War II, said it is important that Mladic died in prison.
20 ruling, the president of the U.N. court that deals with the legacies of now-closed war crimes tribunals, Uruguayan Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, cited the “comprehensive and compassionate medical care” Mladic was receiving in custody “as well as the exceptional visitation regime allowing meaningful family contact” as reasons for turning down the request. “We, the victims, are satisfied, when we know that he was convicted to life in prison,” she said. Vucic said Mladic’s family will decide where he would be buried. “If the family expresses a wish that he be buried in the territory of Serbia, we will help so it can be done in a dignified way,” Vucic told reporters.
He did not confirm earlier reports that Mladic would receive a state funeral. The U.N. court on Thursday opened an inquiry into Mladic’s death, and on Friday, the judge conducting the inquiry visited the detention center where he was held.
