While international institutions and organisations continue to commemorate the victims of the crimes for which Ratko Mladić was sentenced to life imprisonment, a Serbian political party in North Macedonia has chosen a very different way to remember him: by glorifying him as a hero.
The Democratic Party of Serbs in North Macedonia, led by Ivan Stoilković, published a statement following Mladić’s death, referring to him as a “general” and concluding with the words: “General, rest in peace.”
Rather than acknowledging the victims, the Srebrenica genocide or the final judgment of the Hague tribunal, the statement portrays Mladić as a figure inseparable from the identity and history of the Serbian people.
“Many Serbs saw him as their general,” the party wrote, adding that history would remember him.
But history has already delivered its verdict.
Ratko Mladić was not simply a “general” who belonged to a particular era. He was convicted of genocide in Srebrenica, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, terrorising civilians and other grave crimes.
The Hague tribunal sentenced him to life imprisonment, and that sentence was upheld on appeal in 2021.
The issue, therefore, is not simply how a political party chooses to remember a controversial figure from the past. The real issue is what political message is being sent when a man convicted of genocide is publicly repackaged as a “general”, a hero and a symbol of an entire people.
And there is another striking contradiction.
The party that published the statement is part of the governing coalition led by VMRO-DPMNE and Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski — a coalition that also includes the Albanian VLEN parties.
That raises a direct question:
What happens when a coalition partner glorifies a man convicted of genocide?
Is silence enough?
Is political distancing enough?
Or should there be a clear position against the glorification of convicted war criminals?
The party’s statement attempts to separate Mladić from the Hague verdict by arguing that he should be remembered for his uniform, his rank and what he supposedly represented to Serbs.
But changing the vocabulary does not erase a judicial verdict.
A uniform does not erase genocide. A military rank does not overturn a conviction. And political nostalgia cannot rewrite history.
Nationalists are free to remember Mladić however they choose. But political parties that claim to support a European future must ultimately decide whether that future will be built on reconciliation, accountability and respect for international justice — or on the glorification of figures convicted of some of Europe’s worst crimes.
The party concluded its tribute with the words: “Time will judge. History will remember.”
In Mladić’s case, time and history have already spoken.
The Hague delivered its verdict. Srebrenica has its victims. And turning a man convicted of genocide into a hero is not remembrance — it is glorification.
