The Youth Initiative for Human Rights has filed a complaint with Serbia’s Commissioner for the Protection of Equality against Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić, alleging that he published a photo of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić on social media, accompanied by a message describing him as a “Serb hero.”
According to the organization’s statement, the post constitutes hate speech and a serious form of discrimination against Bosniak and Croatian communities. The group is calling on relevant institutions to respond and urging all political factions in the Belgrade City Assembly to publicly condemn the incident.
The Initiative further argues that the post reflects a broader pattern of glorifying war crimes and their perpetrators, noting that similar rhetoric has been used by other officials in Serbia.
It also claims that numerous murals and graffiti celebrating Mladić remain present in Belgrade, while municipal authorities have failed to consistently remove them.
Ratko Mladić, former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992–1995 war, was sentenced in 2021 by the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals to life imprisonment for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Srebrenica.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights said it expects the Equality Commissioner to investigate the complaint and determine whether discriminatory conduct occurred, stressing that “the City of Belgrade must not glorify war criminals.”
