Von der Leyen on Serbian officials at Mladic funeral

“The images from Ratko Mladic’s funeral yesterday in Belgrade were shocking,” she wrote in an X post, recalling that Mladic was a convicted war criminal responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity who died serving a life sentence for the Srebrenica genocide and other crimes.

“The elements of official support and the presence of some senior Serbian officials at the funeral are deeply regrettable. They demonstrate a failure to confront a dark chapter in Europe’s recent history and contradict the values underpinning Serbia’s path towards the European Union,” she added.

“Our thoughts are with all the victims of the crimes committed in the countries of former Yugoslavia,” the post said.