Serbia’s Genocide Denial in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Survivors’ groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina have condemned the announcement that the Serbian government plans to bury the convicted genocidaire Ratko Mladić with “highest military and state honors.” Mladić, the Bosnian Serb army chief during the Balkan wars of the early 1990s, died on August 27 in custody in The Hague following his 2017 conviction by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. His body was met by Serbian officials in Belgrade on September 3. Mladić ‘s apprehension in 2011, after his 16 years on the run, remains a highlight of international cooperation to deliver justice. The European Union, in particular, played a critical role in securing Serbia’s cooperation with the ICTY as part of the country’s bid to join the EU. The ICTY judgment, upheld on appeal, makes clear Mladić's responsibility for widespread atrocities, including the Bosnian Serb army’s mass execution of at least 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica genocide. Mladić was among the highest-level individuals tried before the ICTY and his trial was its last before it closed in 2017. The ICTY was established for a simple purpose: “prosecuting persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.” By that measure it was a great success. All of the 161 people indicted — including many top wartime political leaders and military commanders — faced justice before it for horrific crimes or have died. But as the Serbian government’s announcement to treat Mladić as a war hero shows, the court’s success has not translated into a shared recognition of the crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war. In Serbia and in the Republika Srpska, the predominantly Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, political leaders and others deny crimes by Serbian, Yugoslav, and Bosnian Serb forces and often lionize those that the ICTY convicted. The United Nations special adviser on prevention of genocide has warned of increasing genocide denial in the Balkans. Continued international support for national trials of lower-level suspects is important but is unlikely to end the polarization around historical memory. The EU and the region’s other international partners need to make clear to Serbia and other Western Balkan governments that denying the historical record or inciting ethnic hatred will carry a cost. And they should press these governments to endorse long-standing efforts by civil society to create a regional truth and reconciliation process.