The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, has canceled the planned visit to Serbia, after the ceremonies and honors that followed the death of the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army, Ratko Mladic, convicted of war crimes and genocide. Kosovo’s decision comes after a Serbian government plane transported Mladic’s body to Belgrade, where a well-attended funeral is expected to take place.
Through a reaction on the X social network, the European commissioner criticized the way Mladić’s death was handled, considering it incompatible with European values.
“The eulogy surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the road to the EU was built. This path requires confronting the past, true reconciliation and respect for the victims of war crimes.”Kos wrote.
She added that the values that support the common European future “are not negotiable” and, in this context, decided not to carry out the planned visit to Serbia at this moment. Former commander Mladic was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 conflict.
Mladic died a week ago at the age of 84 while being held in a United Nations detention center in The Hague.
