A session of the Zrenjanin City Assembly in Serbia opened with a minute of silence in honor of Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian Serb wartime commander convicted by the Hague Tribunal of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In protest, councilors from the LSV, PSG, ZLF, Srce and SSP opposition parties walked out of the chamber during the minute of silence.
The opposition said it refused to participate in what it described as a “civilizational slide” and the misuse of the city assembly for political purposes.
“We refuse to participate in the shameful radicalization of public space and the imposition of collective guilt on the citizens of Zrenjanin,” opposition representatives said.
They argued that the city assembly should be a place that promotes life, tolerance and the development of Zrenjanin, rather than an “arena for glorifying the politics of crimes that has set the entire region back.”
“There is no place for war criminals in Zrenjanin,” they stressed.
Zrenjanin is not the only Serbian city where local officials have recently honored Mladić. Assemblies in Novi Sad and Niš have also begun sessions with a minute of silence for the convicted war criminal, prompting opposition representatives to protest.
Ratko Mladić died on August 27 at the age of 84 at a prison hospital in The Hague. In 2017, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The tributes at Serbian local assemblies have sparked renewed criticism over the continued glorification of convicted war criminals and the failure to confront the legacy of the wars of the 1990s.
