Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has strongly criticized the glorification of convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladić, describing the honoring of his legacy as a “complete political and moral failure” on the part of Serbia.
Plenković commented after large gatherings were held to commemorate Mladić, including an event in Banja Luka, where more than a thousand people reportedly gathered to pay tribute to the convicted war criminal.
He said the glorification of Mladić was not limited to Republika Srpska, arguing that the reaction across Serbia demonstrated a broader failure to confront the crimes committed during the wars of the 1990s.
Plenković said that by glorifying Mladić and giving his funeral what he described as a state-like character, Serbia was demonstrating that it had failed to undergo a necessary political and moral reckoning with its past.
Mladić was convicted in The Hague of genocide in connection with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Croatian prime minister said the continued praise and mourning of Mladić showed that Serbia had not made sufficient progress toward the democratic and European values it claims to aspire to.
“This is not only Croatia’s position, but also the position of the European Union,” Plenković said.
He warned that younger generations were increasingly disconnected from the events and atrocities of the 1990s and that glorifying a person convicted of genocide represented a profound failure to understand fundamental moral and political values.
“To give such a man state honors means they should go back to the first grade when it comes to fundamental values,” Plenković said, stressing that he wanted to make clear “the scale of the complete political failure and the moral unacceptability of honoring a war criminal.”
His comments come amid renewed debate across the Western Balkans over Mladić’s legacy, with sharply contrasting reactions between those who recognize him as a convicted perpetrator of genocide and other grave crimes and those who continue to portray him as a military or national figure.
