The son of a finally convicted war criminal, Ratko Mladić, Darko Mladić, stated in Belgrade that his father will be buried on Monday, September 7, and called on his family, friends, and supporters to join the funeral.
According to the family’s announcement, Ratko Mladić’s body will be at St. Luke’s Church in Košutnjak at 7:00 AM, where citizens will be able to express their condolences to the family and pay their respects.
The commemoration will be held a day before, on Saturday at noon, at the Home of the Army of Serbia. After this, the body will be transferred to the Topčidersko cemetery, where the funeral should begin between 1:30 PM and 2:00 PM, depending on the duration of the ceremony and the arrival of the procession.
Due to expected crowds, Darko Mladić called on those planning to participate in the funeral to use public transport. “I would like to call on all friends, supporters, and cousins of General Mladić to come in large numbers and to give him a dignified send-off.
He also called on all those present to restrain themselves from provocations and confrontations, emphasizing that the family expects a peaceful ceremony.
“I call on everyone to restrain themselves from any provocation and attempts to prevent this event so that the grieving family can bury my father with dignity and according to our customs,” said Darko Mladić.
“He Was Murdered”
Part of the press conference focused on Ratko Mladić’s health condition during his stay in a prison cell in The Hague. Darko Mladić made a statement that his father did not die of natural causes, but, according to the family, the cause of his condition was alleged medical negligence.
“The last two months were the most difficult period for me, when my father was killed before my eyes. My personal stance and the family’s stance was that general Ratko Mladić was killed in the Hague Tribunal due to medical negligence and by intentionally administering excessively strong opiates, which ultimately led to his death,” he said.
Mladić’s son added that he believes good living conditions are not enough if medical care is inadequate.
“You can place a man in a 7-star hotel and give him the best food, but if you treat him inadequately, you cannot save him,” he said.
According to him, the family believes that during his final years in the detention hospital, Mladić had appropriate technical conditions, but they claim he did not receive adequate medical care.
Medical Team Member: This is de facto murder.
Doctor Ognjen Gudelj, who was a member of Mladić’s defense medical team, also spoke at the conference. He supported the family’s claims and also confirmed that the death was the result of what he described as inadequate medical treatment.
Gudelj spoke about blood pressure monitoring, laboratory analyses, kidney function, and the therapy Mladić was receiving.
“When you do not measure someone’s blood pressure daily, when you do not perform laboratory analyses, and you do not monitor the kidney function—that is de facto murder,” said Gudelj, expressing his stance on the way in which Mladić was allegedly treated.
Speaking about the therapy, Gudelj especially mentioned fentanyl, a drug belonging to the opioid class, and claimed that its use was linked to the deterioration of Mladić’s health condition and kidney function problems.
“Fentanyl is a narcotic drug; it is excreted through the kidneys, and it causes urination to stop. At that time, the general had the catheter; his kidneys had stopped working, and it was only a matter of time before his life would end,” Gudelj said.
He also said that medical staff informed him that some of the medical tests were not conducted to spare the patient from pain.
Gudelj also stated that he had requested a blood pressure monitor to track Ratko Mladić’s condition, but according to him, he was told that no such device was available.
Ratko Mladić died on August 27th at the detention hospital in The Hague, where he served his life sentence.
Mladić was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The verdict was final and upheld in 2021.
Among the crimes for which he was found guilty are the genocide committed in Srebrenica in 1995, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, and other acts against Bosniaks and Croats, as well as terrorizing the Sarajevo population during the siege of the city.
Over the years, his defense repeatedly requested his transfer to Serbia for medical treatment, but the requests for his provisional release or treatment outside detention were not accepted, Tanjug reports.
