Mandic's Condolences to Mladic's Son Anger Milatovic

Montenegro’s political scene split a day after Ratko Mladic’s death over a single question: should the speaker of parliament publicly offer condolences to the son of a man convicted at The Hague. Andrija Mandic, leader of New Serbian Democracy (NSD) and the highest-ranking official in the Montenegrin parliament, did exactly that, putting himself at odds with President Jakov Milatovic’s office. The dispute cuts straight into how Podgorica treats war crimes verdicts, an issue that also resonates in Belgrade, since NSD is a party that openly cultivates ties with Serbia and Republika Srpska.

Mladic died on Thursday, August 27, in the detention unit in Scheveningen, as we reported the previous day. Sources differ on his age: Portal Analitika puts the general at 85, while Telegraf and Croatia’s Index.hr report he was 84. He had been sentenced, in a final and binding verdict from the International Criminal Tribunal, to life in prison for genocide in Srebrenica, the terror campaign against the population of Sarajevo, and a string of other war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

What Mandic wrote

On the evening of August 27, Mandic posted a message to Darko Mladic on the X platform:

I have just conveyed condolences to Darko Mladic, on my own behalf and on behalf of New Serbian Democracy, over the death of his father, General Ratko Mladic.

He did not specify whether he had offered his condolences in writing or by phone. The post immediately drew reactions from across Montenegro’s political spectrum, including from within his own ruling coalition.

What Milatovic’s office says

President Jakov Milatovic’s office issued a statement recalling that Mladic’s guilt was established by a final verdict of an international court:

“The relationship toward the family of the deceased cannot be an excuse for relativizing war crimes,” the office said in its statement.

The office added that Montenegro must respect the rulings of international courts, clearly condemn war crimes, and preserve the dignity of victims and their families, and that any glorification or relativization of the crimes committed must be rejected.

Reactions inside the ruling coalition

The dispute did not stay confined to Mandic and Milatovic. Danijel Rmus, an official with Aleksa Becic’s Democrats, a party that is part of the ruling coalition, paid tribute to Mladic in a Facebook post and then found himself defending it against the criticism that followed.

“First of all, I want to be completely clear, I did not insult anyone, I did not threaten anyone,” Rmus wrote, adding that his post was a personal expression of respect for a person who had died, without a single line that justified or denied any crime. He said his conscience was clear and that he expected people to stop trying to turn one post into something it was not. If anyone believed he had made a mistake, he said, they should make that case with arguments.

Bosniak Council: a defeated ideology

Montenegro’s Bosniak Council issued a statement on August 27 placing Mladic in the same category as Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, Milan Martic, Biljana Plavsic and Momcilo Krajisnik, describing them as part of the same wartime policy devised in Belgrade.

“The death of Ratko Mladic is the earthly end of a convicted war criminal responsible for suffering, persecution, rapes,” the Council said in its statement, adding that the life sentence handed down by the Hague Tribunal was, in its view, a symbolic and insufficient measure of satisfaction for the victims and their families. The Council said it hoped that Mladic’s death would also send the defeated ideology he represented to the dustbin of history.

As of publication, Mandic had issued no official response to the criticism, and NSD had put out no new statement. The dispute exposes how deep the divide runs within Montenegro’s government over how war criminals should be discussed in public, a question Podgorica also carries into its talks with Brussels over its European path, and one that, through NSD and its closeness to Belgrade, spills directly into Serbia’s own political scene as well.