State Honors for Ratko Mladic Spark Outrage and Raise Questions About International Justice

Thousands recently gathered in the Serbian capital Belgrade to pay their respects to Ratko Mladic, the head of the Bosnian Serb army who was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Anyone glorifying Mladic is effectively approving the mass murder of thousands of innocent people. This raises difficult questions about the Serbian state for organizing a funeral with state honors, as well as about the Serbs from Serbia proper and the Bosnian Serbs who attended.

The restricted ability of international justice to teach lasting lessons is further demonstrated by modern conflicts started by figures like Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. Despite nearly three decades of international humanitarian law in action, such leaders appear to have learned nothing, showing a willingness to feed hundreds of thousands of people into deadly conflicts. In comparison, the 1990s wars in the Western Balkans were part of a different historical context, though lessons may yet emerge from ongoing global conflicts.

Mladic will likely be swiftly forgotten everywhere except in Serbia and Bosnia’s Republika Srpska, with university students from other parts of the former Yugoslavia already failing to recognize his name. There were no legitimate war aims justifying his actions, whether it was the starving and shooting of the people of Sarajevo or the killing of over 8,000 men and boys from Srebrenica. The central lesson of war remains that ordinary people can be transformed into killers by bad political and military leaders.

Reflecting on personal history, visits to Yugoslavia beginning in 1963—staying with a family linked to Aleksandar Rankovic and participating in motorcades for President Josip Broz Tito and Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev—revealed a society built on the slogan of "brotherhood and unity." Later work as a tour representative in Cavtat, Croatia, and as a UN employee prosecuting Bosnian Croats, a Bosnian Serb, and Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against Bosnian Muslims, Croats, and Kosovars, showed how quickly political maneuvering could shatter that unity and normalize hatred.

As the former Yugoslavia broke up, some Serbs and Bosnian Serbs were encouraged to believe that hegemonic desires for the Western Balkans could justify ethnic cleansing. Just as Putin's desires for Ukraine and the former USSR or Trump's ambitions excuse nothing, Mladic's mourners cannot justify murderous campaigns under the guise of political control. Those who publicly honor him will hopefully realize in time that such actions have no place in a civilized society.