BELGRADE – Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated that if the family of former commander of the Republika Srpska Army Ratko Mladić, sentenced for genocide and war crimes to life in prison, wants him to be buried in the territory of Serbia, “the state will help them to do it in a dignified way”, FoNet agency reported.
Vučić stressed that he had long been in contact with Mladić’s son Darko, to whom he expressed his condolences.
“The state was trying to help Ratko Mladić end life in Serbia”, he noted.
He said he did not know details about the investigation of Mladić’s death by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, adding that a team had been sent to the Hague to help with logistical matters, such as transport (of the body).
“We heard about the possibility that Mladić would be buried in Belgrade, next to his daughter. Whether it will be, we still do not know. And we cannot know, because the body is not in our hands”, Vučić underlined.
According to Vučić, “the Hague wanted Mladić to die behind the bars, not in a hospital”.
“They did not want to allow Mladić to die in Serbia, where he wanted to”, Vučić said, adding that this was “an anti-civilization behavior”.
He underlined that he was witnessing “the most difficult pressures from different sides”.
“These are difficult days for Serbia, as all those who participated in crimes against Serbs in the territory of Former Yugoslavia were always supposed to be punished, and then acquitted in the second-instance verdicts”, Serbian President remarked.
He said that he has “knowledge” that the verdict against former leader of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Hashim Thaçi for crimes against Serbs and other non-Albanians in KiM will be such as to cover the days of detention, and that it will largely acquit for all crimes against the Serbian people”.
“They have scheduled the verdict for 16 September, and 15 September is the Day of Serbian Unity and the National Flag. They love symbols. As far as I know, the verdict will be somewhat condemnatory, but not because of the Serbian victims. Do Westerners want to tell us: You Serbs are the only ones to blame. There are no others? They want to tell us that we have to accept that, that Serbian blood is not important”, Vučić claimed.
