Serbian anti-war activists oppose request to transfer war criminal Ratko Mladic for treatment, call it an insult to genocide victims

The reaction came after media reports said Mladic’s family had submitted a request to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), the UN court in The Hague that oversees sentences handed down by the former Yugoslavia tribunal, citing his deteriorating health.

In a statement, Women in Black said the request was a direct affront to victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

“The request represents humiliation and an insult to the victims of genocide, to whom Mladic gave not even a second to drink water or say goodbye to their loved ones before deportation and execution,” the group said.

The activists also accused Serbian authorities of enabling genocide denial and glorification of war criminals.

“This inhumane request by the regime is also an insult to all responsible citizens of Serbia who stand in solidarity with the victims of genocide and all crimes committed in our name,” they said, arguing that the move once again shows that those in power in Serbia are either wartime instigators, active participants in crimes from the 1990s, or admirers of convicted war criminals.

The group said Serbian society continues to live in denial, relativization and glorification of war crimes, and warned that impunity remains deeply entrenched.

“We refuse the political tendency to live in peace without justice. We refuse to believe that justice is possible without punishment,” the statement said.

The IRMCT told Detektor that once a request for temporary release is filed, the president of the Mechanism decides on a case-by-case basis, in line with its legal framework and the specific circumstances involved. The court said there is no fixed timeline for such decisions, but that requests are treated seriously and decided as quickly as possible.

Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, is serving a life sentence for genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, the terror campaign against civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

In July 1995, more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in and around Srebrenica.

A similar request by Mladic’s defense in June 2025, which argued he had been moved to palliative care and had only months to live, was rejected by the court. The Mechanism’s president at the time said medical evidence showed he was nearing the end of his life and in serious condition, but declined to approve temporary or early release.