Thousands of mourners gathered at a church in Belgrade on Monday to pay their respects and view the body of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic as he lay in state.
Known as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, Mladic died on August 27 in The Hague, Netherlands. He was serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity after being convicted of genocide by a UN court.
The government insisted the funeral was a private affair, even as government ministers attended and state-controlled news media lavished praise on the convicted war criminal.
The European Union has heavily criticised the event. In protest, the bloc's enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, cancelled an upcoming visit to Serbia.