The European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, said that the participation of representatives of the Serbian authorities at the funeral of former Republika Srpska Army commander Ratko Mladić is far from an insignificant matter.
According to him, the presence of officials from Belgrade at the funeral will show the extent to which Serbia’s authorities identify themselves with the crimes for which Mladić was convicted by international justice.
In a reaction on X, Picula said that the “toxic attacks” against the verdict of the Hague Tribunal confirm the familiar position of the regime in Belgrade, according to which Mladić is portrayed as an innocent victim of the international justice system.
Picula stressed that the European Union should respond appropriately to such statements, reminding that the consequences of the wars of the 1990s are still very much present across the region.
“The EU’s response must be adequate, because the consequences of Serbia’s Greater Serbia aggression against the Republic of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo in the 1990s have still not been absorbed,” Picula said.
And that is the uncomfortable reality for Belgrade: you cannot keep invoking a European future while continuing to defend, honour or whitewash the legacy of those convicted for the crimes of the past.
