British-American journalist and longtime CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour has expressed deep disappointment over the continued public honoring of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić in Serbia, following his funeral in Belgrade.
Amanpour, who covered the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the front lines and reported on the atrocities as they unfolded, said she had hoped Serbia would ultimately reject the glorification of those responsible for some of the conflict’s worst crimes.
“Having covered Mladić’s monstrous crimes in real time, I dared to hope that Serbia would not do it,” Amanpour wrote on X.
She said she had hoped that the aspirations of younger generations of Serbs to join Europe and become part of a community based on democracy and human rights would encourage “common sense, morality and restraint.”
Instead, the scenes surrounding Mladić’s funeral left her questioning what kind of country Serbia wants to become.
“Must we now conclude that this is what Serbia wants to be — a nation in agreement with and honoring a convicted war criminal, a mass murderer, guilty of the most heinous crime under heaven — genocide?” she asked.
Amanpour also questioned how Serbia’s institutions, including the Serbian Orthodox Church, could have allowed such a public display of respect for Mladić.
Mladić Buried With State and Military Honors
Mladić, the former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, died in The Hague while serving a life sentence after being convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes committed during the Bosnian war.
He was buried at Topčider Cemetery in Belgrade in a ceremony attended by Serbian officials and accompanied by state and military honors.
The funeral sparked renewed criticism over the continued glorification of Mladić and the broader failure to confront the legacy of the crimes committed during the war.
For Amanpour, who personally witnessed the devastation of Bosnia during the conflict, the public honoring of Mladić represents a deeply troubling reminder that the legacy of the war remains unresolved.
Her remarks add to growing international criticism of the way Serbia has chosen to commemorate a man convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of responsibility for some of the gravest crimes committed in Europe since the Second World War.
