Funeral of convicted war criminal Mladic draws thousands, opens old wounds

Thousands of people gathered in Belgrade on ‌Monday (September) for the funeral of the former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who died ​last week while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Crowds ⁠carrying Serbian flags and pictures of Mladic wearing a traditional Serbian military cap gathered outside the church in a Belgrade suburb where the head of the country’s Orthodox church, Serbian Patriarch Porfirije, presided over the service.

Mladic’s coffin, surrounded by armed ‌soldiers in fatigues and accompanied by a brass band, was then paraded through streets thronged with onlookers, who chanted his name. He was buried at a nearby cemetery next to his ‌daughter, who died in 1994.