Today, on September 15, the European Parliament is holding a plenary session dedicated to the state funeral of the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić in Belgrade and the increasing glorification of war criminals in Serbia.
Tonino Picula, a Croatian politician and diplomat, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Croatia, and Member of the European Parliament, also addressed the session today.
“From Škabrnja, through the siege of Sarajevo, to Srebrenica, some of the worst crimes on European soil since World War II are being commemorated both in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Behind these crimes stands the one who was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity before the International Court in The Hague. That is why we must not remain silent about his disgraceful send-off. But Mladić’s funeral revealed the overall policy of official Belgrade. Sending off the war criminal speaks not only of a completely unacceptable attitude towards the past, but also of a direction in which that government is steering Serbia today. Vučić sent off one war criminal with state honors, and with the other, Šešelj, he made an electoral alliance. In the EU, we are constantly fighting against false news and information, but we must fight against historical revisionism and the glorification of criminals,” Picula said, adding:
“If the Serbian government is deliberately wandering off course, the EU should stop wandering in its attitude towards such a government. It should not be isolated from the facts that clearly indicate that Vučić’s Serbia does not belong in the EU. The war criminal Mladić is buried, but the ideas of Greater Serbia and the so-called “Serbian World” were not buried with him. Illusions of a European Serbia and a progressive government should be buried with Mladić. Therefore, it is entirely justified to ask the question – should the EU even continue with Serbia as long as it has such a government?”
In addition to the funeral itself, Members of the European Parliament warn of a broader trend of glorifying war crimes in Serbia, asking the European Commission for concrete steps and sanctions, which include the option of freezing Serbia’s EU accession negotiations.
