Dajkovic and DNP Honor Mladic, Milatovic Pushes Back
Delegations from DNP and Free Montenegro attended Ratko Mladic's funeral in Belgrade, while President Milatovic warned that grief for his family cannot excuse relativizing his crimes.
Ratko Mladic was buried in Belgrade, but the political fallout from that funeral is being felt loudest in Podgorica, where the attendance of two Montenegrin parties has opened a fresh round of conflict between the government, the opposition and civil society. For Serbia, this is not simply a neighbor’s internal matter: every gesture toward Mladic in Montenegro feeds directly into relations between the two states and into the picture Belgrade presents to Brussels of how it is confronting the wars of the 1990s.
Who Made Up the Delegations From Podgorica
According to the party’s own statement, the Democratic People’s Party (DNP) delegation at the funeral consisted of member of parliament and Presidency member Vladislav Bojovic and Zeta municipality president and Presidency member Mihailo Asanovic. DNP leader Milan Knezevic did not travel to Belgrade because of prior commitments in the United States, so his brother Mirko Knezevic represented the party in his place. DNP said the delegation had paid its respects to the memory of General Ratko Mladic.
The second delegation, from the Free Montenegro movement, was led by its president, Vladislav Dajkovic. After the funeral he told reporters who he had offered condolences to, and on whose behalf.
“I expressed condolences to Darko Mladic on behalf of every Serb from Montenegro. It is our sacred, moral and national duty to be in this place.”
With those words, Dajkovic confirmed that his movement has no intention of abandoning its public commemoration of Mladic, despite his final conviction by the Hague Tribunal for genocide in Srebrenica and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Why Milatovic Spoke Out Against Relativizing the Crimes
The same day, Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic distanced himself from the delegations’ attendance at the funeral, saying a family’s loss must never become grounds for reinterpreting the verdicts against him. He said the attitude toward the family of the late Ratko Mladic cannot be an excuse for relativizing war crimes.
Milatovic’s statement came a day after Andrija Mandic, Speaker of Montenegro’s National Assembly and leader of New Serbian Democracy (NOVA), sent his condolences to the Mladic family and defended the move as standard diplomatic practice, even though he signed it in his capacity as Speaker of parliament rather than solely as a party official. Pljevlja municipality president Dario Vranes, an official from the same party, went further, calling Mladic an “immortal Serbian general” in an obituary notice and thanking him for what he had done for the Serbian people. Prime Minister Milojko Spajic did not personally comment on the matter, while his Europe Now Movement said it respects the rulings of international courts.
How Brussels Reacted
Responding to the glorification of Mladic within part of Montenegro’s public, the European Commission said there is no place in the European Union for celebrating war criminals, an indirect warning to Podgorica that such gestures weigh on its path to membership. The non-governmental Human Rights Action (HRA) said Montenegro has never carried out a serious, comprehensive reckoning with its role in the wars of the 1990s, and that the problem is not only that individuals mourn Mladic, but that part of the political scene can still call him a hero as a matter of national custom.
Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) launched an initiative to remove Mandic from the post of parliamentary Speaker, specifically over his telegram of condolence to the family of a man convicted of genocide. Police, according to earlier reports from Kolasin, identified and questioned eight people over the glorification of Mladic on that town’s streets two days earlier, while in Pljevlja a graffito on the same theme briefly appeared, and was then removed, in front of the home of a Bosniak Party MP.
For Belgrade, this split carries real weight: while Serbia’s state leadership avoids officially glorifying a man convicted of genocide, part of Montenegro’s political scene openly calls him a hero, raising the question of how much strain that gap will put on bilateral relations in the months ahead. Our newsroom has previously reported on the commemoration attended by Vujic and Karan, making today’s attendance by DNP and Free Montenegro at the funeral a continuation of the same dispute, while the DPS initiative to remove Mandic awaits a vote by members of Montenegro’s parliament.
