Ratko Mladic to Be Buried Monday at Topcider Cemetery

After the remains of Ratko Mladic were flown from The Hague to Belgrade on Wednesday, September 3, a schedule for the farewell surfaced in public. Belgrade media reported that a commemoration is set for Saturday, September 5, at 12 p.m. at the House of the Army, with the funeral service and burial on Monday, September 7. No official statement has come from the family, which under the ruling of the International Residual Mechanism is the only party deciding on the place and manner of burial, at the time of writing.

This text is being updated as new information arrives on the arrangements, the protocol and the security measures.

In brief

• Commemoration: Saturday, September 5, 12 p.m., House of the Army at 19 Brace Jugovica Street, the hall holds up to 300 people
• Lying in state: Monday, September 7, from 7 a.m., Church of Saint Luke
• Condolences: Monday, from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.
• Burial: Topcider Cemetery, around 1.30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
• Grave site: next to his daughter Ana, who died in 1994
• An autopsy at the Military Medical Academy, requested by the family, comes first

The times above are those the family gave on Friday. The earlier media schedule, carried in this text on Wednesday, had the lying in state from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and the service at 12.35 p.m.

The commemoration at the House of the Army

The House of the Army, in the building known as the Warriors’ Home in Brace Jugovica Street, is where military protocol places commemorations for deceased officers. It was built in 1931 to a design by architects Jovan Jovanovic and Zivojin Piperski, funded by contributions from reserve officers and soldiers of World War One.

Under the announced schedule, the body would be moved on Monday morning to the Church of Saint Luke in Vidikovac, where it would lie in state from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. The funeral service is announced for 12.35 p.m., after which the procession sets out for Topcider Cemetery.

His wife Bosiljka Mladic told the daily Novosti that the grave site is the one her husband asked for.

I am grateful to everyone who helped fulfil his last wish. My heart is calmer. Ratko’s last wish will be fulfilled, that he rest beside our child.

she said. Their daughter Ana Mladic was buried at Topcider Cemetery after her death in 1994.

Will there be military honors

The schedule does not settle that question. Justice Minister Nenad Vujic announced the highest state and military honors in late August.

General Mladic is a general and the protocols are known. His role is known too, but what belongs to General Mladic will certainly be respected.

Vujic said. President Aleksandar Vucic, for his part, has repeated that the arrangements depend entirely on the family’s wishes and that the state will provide logistical and transport support and help preserve public order.

The Humanitarian Law Center disputes the legal basis for military honors. Jovana Kolaric of that organization points out that the law provides for stripping the rank of anyone sentenced to more than a year in prison, and Mladic was convicted and sentenced to life.

Security assessments and the expected turnout

Assessments by the Security Information Agency, the Military Security Agency and the Interior Ministry (MUP) put the expected turnout at the funeral in the tens of thousands. Vucic said the services face a difficult and complicated situation and that the state will use everything at its disposal to keep those attending safe.

Wednesday itself showed what kind of turnout is possible. As the convoy carrying the coffin moved from the airport to the Military Medical Academy, people stood on overpasses along the motorway with banners and flags.

Arrivals of veterans from Republika Srpska have also been organized for the day of the funeral. The Veterans’ Organization of Republika Srpska said it would arrange transport for all who want to attend, in cooperation with the authorities of Republika Srpska and Serbia, with registration through municipal and city veterans’ organizations by noon on September 2. No final number has been published.

Before any of these dates, the autopsy at the Military Medical Academy has to be completed. Deputy head of the VMA Ivan Lekovic said it is being done at the family’s request and on the basis of a letter from the justice minister, and that the findings will be delivered to the family and the competent institutions as soon as possible.

Reactions across the region

The announcement of a funeral with honors drew reactions before the body even reached Serbia. The Bosniak National Council said in a statement that the state is sending Bosniaks a dangerous message and called on officials not to glorify a convicted war criminal. The Citizens’ Assembly of Novi Pazar said:

You cannot ask Bosniaks to trust institutions while at the same time granting state recognition to a man convicted of genocide.

Minister Husein Memic said he will not take part in the funeral and that there is no government confirmation of state honors. Ahmed Delimedjac, a lawyer from Novi Pazar, said he fears Mladic’s grave will turn into a mausoleum.

From Sarajevo, the chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Becirovic, said the verdict stands unchanged regardless of how anyone chooses to see it, while Federation Prime Minister Nermin Niksic said Mladic’s death changes neither the truth nor the responsibility established by the judgments. Croatian Defense Minister Ivan Anusic said he regrets that Mladic was never convicted for crimes on Croatian soil as well.

Messages from Republika Srpska went the other way. Presidency member Zeljka Cvijanovic said it is hard to avoid the impression that the death was the result of extremely inhumane treatment of a gravely ill man.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, repeated the call on all those in power to refrain from denial of adjudicated crimes.

Update, Friday September 4: the family gives the schedule

At noon on Friday, at a press conference at the Press Center of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia, the family set out the schedule itself for the first time. Until then only media had published it. The speakers were his son Darko Mladic, Justice Minister Nenad Vujic, defense lawyer Dragan Ivetic and a cardiologist from the defense medical team, Dr Ognjen Gudelj.

Darko Mladic gave times that differ in two details from what had been circulating.

Tomorrow at 12 o’clock the commemoration will be held at the House of the Army of Serbia. My father’s funeral will be on Monday, September 7. From 7 in the morning the coffin with his body will lie in state at the Church of Saint Luke. Anyone who wishes to offer condolences and pay respects can do so from 7 to 12.

The coffin therefore lies in state from 7 a.m., not 9, and condolences run until 12 p.m., not 12.30. The burial is planned for around 1.30 p.m. to 2 p.m., depending on how quickly the procession reaches Topcider Cemetery from the church. The hall at the House of the Army holds up to 300 people.

One discrepancy the family did not settle: Darko Mladic places the church in Kosutnjak, while the articles published on Wednesday, this one among them, put the Church of Saint Luke in Vidikovac. It is the same church, but sources differ on how they name the neighborhood.

The son asked those attending to use public transport and to avoid incidents.

I would like the funeral to pass peacefully and with dignity, and not to become an occasion for conflict and bickering.

I call on everyone to refrain from provocations and from attempts to obstruct the event, so that the mourners can bury my father with dignity.

Asked about the expected turnout, he answered briefly.

The interest is enormous. I believe my father deserved it.

President Aleksandar Vucic said the same day that he would not attend, because he has an official visit from Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Monday and Tuesday.

I have an official visit from the president of Uzbekistan the whole day on Monday and Tuesday, scheduled four months ago.

He added that he had done everything needed for the farewell to pass with dignity and for the state to act responsibly. He did not address state or military honors in that answer.

The family’s press conference: claims about the treatment in The Hague

The same event was where the family and the defense first named what they consider the cause of death. Until then only a general assessment of inhumane treatment had been stated publicly.

Dr Ognjen Gudelj, a cardiologist on the defense medical team, made several specific claims: that Mladic’s blood pressure was not measured daily even though he was a cardiac patient, that regular laboratory analyses were not carried out, and that his diabetes therapy was discontinued. He also says a temperature chart was sent to him from The Hague showing that fentanyl was administered for a month, and that the defense and the family were told Mladic was receiving fentanyl patches but not that he was also receiving sublingual doses.

With great regret I have to say something I thought I would never say in my life, General Ratko Mladic was killed at the Hague Tribunal by the failure to act of doctors and medical staff

When you do not measure someone’s blood pressure daily, and he is a cardiac patient… That is de facto murder

According to Gudelj, the medical staff justified not measuring his blood pressure by saying they wanted to spare him the pain. On the drug’s effect he said:

Fentanyl is a narcotic drug… it leads to the cessation of urination. At that moment the general already has a catheter, which means the kidneys have stopped

Darko Mladic made the same assessment in his own name and on behalf of the family.

My personal position and the position of the family is that the murder of General Mladic was carried out at the Hague Tribunal through negligent treatment

My father had good care at the Hague Tribunal, but care and treatment are not the same thing

You can put a man in a seven star hotel, but if you treat him wrongly, you cannot save him

The last two months were the hardest period for me. I watched my father being killed

Lawyer Dragan Ivetic spoke about the documentation and about the last request for release. He says he asked for the records back in April and never received them.

Not a single medical document, apart from the death certificate, was delivered to the family

According to Ivetic, the last request was supported by two judges and two independent medical experts, and was refused by the president of the International Residual Mechanism.

The president refused the release. With that decision, General Mladic became the first prisoner of the Hague Tribunal who had to die in prison

He stressed that the defense had not sought release from the sentence but a conditional medical transfer to Serbia, with state guarantees and admission to the Military Medical Academy.

The family has to learn the answers

Justice Minister Nenad Vujic confirmed that the Serbian government had offered a medical plane, guarantees and hospital admission, and that the request was refused on August 20. He said that a sentence ends with death and that everything after that is revenge, and that prison conditions are not the same as treatment.

Prison conditions, regardless of whether something has been repainted or has an antistatic floor, are not the same as treatment

The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals had not responded to the accusations made at the conference by the time this update was written. It said earlier that it had acted with full respect for international law when handing over the body. The inquiry into the circumstances of the death is led by Judge Iain Bonomy, appointed by Mechanism President Graciela Gatti Santana, and nothing new was announced on Wednesday or Friday about how far it has progressed. Dutch authorities said earlier that they would not open a criminal investigation or carry out an autopsy in the Netherlands.

The autopsy report from the Military Medical Academy, carried out at the family’s request, had not been published by Friday and was not mentioned at the conference.

What remains open

After Friday three questions stand unanswered: whether the Serbian Army will take official part in the ceremony and in what form, what the traffic regime in Belgrade will be on Monday, on which neither the Secretariat for Transport, nor the Interior Ministry, nor the City of Belgrade had issued a statement by Friday, and what the autopsy report shows. Answers will be added to this text as they become known.