The UN’s chief war crimes prosecutor told the Security Council that Serbian society is denying war crimes and glorifying criminals.

Serge Brammertz, Chief Prosecutor of the UN Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in the Hague, said in his regular report to the UN SC that there are more than 150 murals of convicted war criminal Bosnian Serb military chief General Ratko Mladic in Belgrade alone. According to him, Serbian society has embraced an atmosphere of denial and glorification of war crimes and criminals created by politicians.

He said that denial of war crimes is widespread in the other countries of the former Yugoslavia, adding that Croatian President Zoran Milanovic continues to question the genocide in Srebrenica and that top officials in the Republika Srpska were praising war criminals convicted by the Hague tribunal.

Brammertz said that he was informed by the Croatian authorities that they consider the prosecution of Croatian nationals a question of national security which, according to him, makes justice a political issue. He added that civil societies in Croatia have warned that most of the trials against Serbs are being conducted in absentia and that no one is dealing with known crimes against Serbs.

The chief prosecutor said that there are more than 3,000 suspected war criminals in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.