Helsinki Committee: Mladic's funeral was a "skillfully prepared and synchronized performance" by state, army, and church

The human rights watchdog emphasized that "four buses of demobilized members of the Army of the Republika Srpska arrived organized from Banja Luka, which additionally shows how much the event surpassed the framework of a private funeral."

According to the Helsinki Committee, this is not merely a story about Ratko Mladic, but rather "a story about the consequences of a long-standing policy of tolerating nationalist narratives in Serbia and the region." The organization noted that the West has watched for years as individuals legally convicted of the gravest war crimes were rehabilitated and glorified, while simultaneously discussing Serbia's European perspective, regional stability, and Belgrade's constructive role.

"What world officials treat today as a shock and an incident is actually a direct consequence of their own long-standing calculation," the announcement reads, adding that "Western diplomacy consciously chose apparent stability instead of essential democratization, turning a blind eye to the celebration of war criminals."

The Committee pointed out that during this period, the concept of the "Serbian World" developed, gradually erasing the boundaries between cultural cooperation and political integration while the world looked the other way. Therefore, everything that accompanied Mladic's death and funeral "cannot be observed as a spontaneous outburst of emotion or an unforeseen excess."

Instead, "it is a skillfully prepared and synchronized performance in which the state, the army, and the church acted on the same joint task: the glorification of a war criminal," each institution playing a clear role to rehabilitate the politics of the 1990s. This mass manifestation, organized with logistic support and the highest state and religious honors, served as an ideal stage to send a clear message that "Serbia and Republika Srpska are one."

The international community today is witnessing "only the logical outcome of its own opportunism and appeasement policy, as it observes how former nationalist narratives turn into tangible political and territorial reality," the Helsinki Committee concluded.