Bosnian official Konakovic called for international sanctions against those responsible for the state and military funeral ceremony held in Serbia for Ratko Mladić.
Addressing the leaders of the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, as well as member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Konakovic called on international actors to act before it was too late.
Konakovic said that state institutions, political authorities and military elements were used at the ceremony, adding that members of the Serbian army were also assigned to the ceremony where Mladić’s body was buried. He argued that this was not a gathering organized spontaneously by individuals, but an institutional act of the Serbian state.
Konakovic said responsibility should be addressed at the highest level and directly with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Konakovic said the honor guard volley fired at the ceremony harmed relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, European values and the principles of international justice. He added that it also damaged the dignity of the victims and survivors of genocide and war crimes, as well as peace and stability in the region.
Konakovic said the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina had not forgotten what happened in the 1990s, noting that the events of that period resulted in death, destruction and some of the gravest crimes committed in Europe since World War II.
Konakovic said they feared a similar scenario could happen again and wanted to act without allowing such an event to recur in his country.
Ratko Mladić’s background
Ratko Mladić was born in 1942 in the village of Bozanovici, near Kalinovik in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. After receiving military training in Belgrade, he served in the Yugoslav People’s Army.
Mladić was appointed chief of staff of the Army of Republika Srpska, established in Bosnia and Herzegovina in May 1992, and remained in the position until 1996. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia issued its first indictment against him on July 24, 1995.
Mladić fled to Serbia after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and remained in hiding for nearly 16 years. During the period when Serbian authorities said they had been unable to find him, allegations emerged that he had been protected by individuals in some state institutions.
During the period he was wanted, television footage was broadcast showing Mladić meeting people in crowded places, socializing and posing for photographs. He was arrested on May 26, 2011, in the village of Lazarevo near the Serbian city of Zrenjanin and sent to The Hague on May 31, 2011.
Mladić’s trial began on May 16, 2012, and he denied the charges against him. He was deemed primarily responsible for and an instigator of the Srebrenica genocide, in which 8,372 Bosniak civilians were killed in July 1995, and was sentenced to life imprisonment for the Srebrenica genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Mladić, who had serious health problems while held in a prison in The Hague, died on August 27. His body was buried on September 7 in an official ceremony attended by numerous Serbian officials in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.
