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State glorification of convicted war criminals: the funeral of Ratko Mladić

Written declaration No. 843 | Doc. 16501 | 30 September 2026

Signatories:
Ms Alicia KEARNS, United Kingdom, ECPA ; Mr Knut ABRAHAM, Germany, EPP/CD ; Mr Mehmet AKALIN, Türkiye, ALDE ; Mr Abdurrahman BABACAN, Türkiye, NR ; Ms Aysu BANKOĞLU, Türkiye, SOC ; Dame Karen BRADLEY, United Kingdom, ECPA ; Baroness Lyn BROWN, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Iulian BULAI, Romania, ALDE ; Mr Nikolla CAMAJ, Montenegro, ALDE ; Ms Sevilay ÇELENK, Türkiye, UEL ; Ms Sena Nur ÇELİK KANAT, Türkiye, ALDE ; Ms Sabina ĆUDIĆ, Bosnia and Herzegovina, ALDE ; Ms Edina DEŠIĆ, Montenegro, EPP/CD ; Ms Andrea EDER-GITSCHTHALER, Austria, EPP/CD ; Mr Yunus EMRE, Türkiye, SOC ; Ms Edite ESTRELA, Portugal, SOC ; Lord George FOULKES, United Kingdom, SOC ; Lord Michael GERMAN, United Kingdom, ALDE ; Ms Gökçe GÖKÇEN, Türkiye, SOC ; Mr Oleksii GONCHARENKO, Ukraine, ECPA ; Mr Gustaf GÖTHBERG, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Ms Inge GRÄßLE, Germany, EPP/CD ; Baroness Theresa GRIFFIN, United Kingdom, SOC ; Lord Leslie GRIFFITHS, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Tuula HAATAINEN, Finland, SOC ; Mr Jürgen HARDT, Germany, EPP/CD ; Ms Gabriela HEINRICH, Germany, SOC ; Baroness Ruth HUNT, United Kingdom, SOC ; Ms Kristina IKIĆ BANIČEK, Croatia, SOC ; Ms Nadejda IORDANOVA, Bulgaria, NR ; Mr Paweł JABŁOŃSKI, Poland, ECPA ; Mr Mogens JENSEN, Denmark, SOC ; Lord Carwyn JONES, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Julian JOSWIG, Germany, SOC ; Ms Mia KARAMEHIĆ-ABAZOVIĆ, Bosnia and Herzegovina, ALDE ; Ms Franziska KERSTEN, Germany, SOC ; Ms Saskia KLUIT, Netherlands, SOC ; Ms Bisera KOSTADINOVSKA-STOJCHEVSKA, North Macedonia, SOC ; Mr Christophe LACROIX, Belgium, SOC ; Ms Iris LUARASI, Albania, SOC ; Mr Max LUCKS, Germany, SOC ; Mr Arminas LYDEKA, Lithuania, ALDE ; Mr Saša MAGAZINOVIĆ, Bosnia and Herzegovina, SOC ; Mr Oleksandr MEREZHKO, Ukraine, ALDE ; Mr Fabian MOLINA, Switzerland, SOC ; Ms Louise MOREL, France, ALDE ; Mr Dominik OBERHOFER, Austria, ALDE ; Mr Marko PAVIĆ, Croatia, EPP/CD ; Ms Manuela PERTEGHELLA, United Kingdom, ALDE ; Ms Lucia PLAVÁKOVÁ, Slovak Republic, ALDE ; Ms Marijana PULJAK, Croatia, ALDE ; Mr Ivan RAČAN, Croatia, SOC ; Ms Daan ROOVERS, Netherlands, SOC ; Mr Sam RUSHWORTH, United Kingdom, SOC ; Mr Namık TAN, Türkiye, SOC ; Ms Victoria TIBLOM, Sweden, ECPA ; Ms Lesia VASYLENKO, Ukraine, ALDE ; Ms Albana VOKSHI, Albania, EPP/CD ; Mr Johannes VOLKMANN, Germany, EPP/CD ; Ms Zeynep YILDIZ, Türkiye, NR

We, the undersigned, declare the following:

Upon the burial of Ratko Mladić, we:

  • reject all attempts to deny or glorify his crimes: the genocide at Srebrenica, the siege of Sarajevo, ethnic cleansing at Foča, Vlasenica and Prijedor, concentration camps for Bosniak and Croat detainees, mass sexual violence, and the taking of UN personnel as hostages;
  • commemorate the men, women and children killed, harmed or displaced by forces under his command;
  • note with regret that the Serbian State provided an aircraft to repatriate his remains, draped his coffin in State flags, detailed serving soldiers to bear it, hosted a commemoration at the House of the Serbian Army, and buried him with military honours in the presence of government ministers.

Private mourning is the right of every family. Honours conferred by a State are not. They tell survivors that the crimes perpetrated against them are a source of national pride. Such denial is a deliberate and calculated attack on survivors, a continuation of the crimes themselves. What begins with violence is continued through the falsification of history.

No State can honour a man convicted of genocide and remain faithful to Article 3 of the Statute of the Council of Europe, which binds every member to the rule of law and to human rights.