Two Council of Europe (CoE) Parliamentary Assembly rapporteurs called the Serbian authorities to remove the mural depicting convicted war criminal General Ratko Mladic in central Belgrade.

“Piero Fassino and Ian Liddell-Grainger urged the Serbian authorities to take unequivocal action against the glorification of convicted war criminals and to remove, without delay, a mural in Belgrade glorifying Ratko Mladic, convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” a press release said.

The rapporteurs for Serbia expressed dismay with the fact that the Serbian authorities failed to remove “the illegally installed mural and that the former Václav Havel Prize winner, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR), was banned from holding a demonstration against this mural on 9 November 2021, with the Ministry of the Interior citing ‘security reasons’,” it added.

They said that the ensuing event over the mural recalled “the need to fight unambiguously against the glorification of convicted war criminals” because that undermines regional cooperation and hinders the European integration process.

“A democratic society cannot live in denial of war crimes and in a culture of hate and impunity. We therefore call on the Serbian authorities to demonstrate, through strong action, their willingness to fight firmly against the glorification of war criminals and to erase, without further delay, the frescoes glorifying war criminals,” Fassino and Liddell-Grainger said.