Remembering Srebrenica condemns today’s full military honours funeral in Serbia for convicted genocide perpetrator Ratko Mladić. There can be no honour in celebrating a man convicted of genocide, the gravest of international crimes, alongside crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Ratko Mladić was not a hero. He was a convicted war criminal who was found responsible for the worst genocide in Europe since the Second World War.
The decision to honour him with a military ceremony and public glorification is an affront to humanity and the victims and the survivors of the Bosnian genocide. It sends a deeply disturbing message that genocide can be celebrated, hatred promoted and the perpetrators of evil glorified.
Those who participate in, endorse or glorify this spectacle should be ashamed. To celebrate Mladić is to celebrate a man whose forces murdered tens of thousands of Bosniak Muslims across Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorised civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, perpetrated widespread persecution and forced displacement, and operated a network of concentration camps where people were imprisoned, tortured and abused. Between 20,000 and 50,000 women and girls were subjected to rape and sexual violence. Over two million people were driven from their homes and displaced.
It is sickening that, rather than remembering the victims, an evil man is being celebrated and remembered.
Reconciliation cannot be built on the glorification of those responsible for genocide. Peace cannot be secured by rewriting the past. The people of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, like people everywhere, deserve a future founded on truth, dignity and peaceful coexistence, not one built around the glorification of an evil person convicted of genocide, or the denial of the Bosnian genocide, or the continued promotion of hatred and division.
Dr Waqar Azmi OBE, Chair of Remembering Srebrenica, said: “Remembering Srebrenica unequivocally condemns the decision to honour Ratko Mladić with full military honours. There is nothing honourable about celebrating an evil man convicted of the worst genocide in Europe since the Second World War.
“To those who participate in or glorify this funeral, we say plainly: you are not honouring history, you are dishonouring yourselves, your nation and humanity, and sending the worst message to the world about your values.
“The Mothers of Srebrenica have spent decades seeking truth and justice without hatred or revenge. They have shown extraordinary courage and dignity in the face of unimaginable loss. Today we stand with them and all the victims and survivors of the Bosnian genocide.
“We have written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband asking for the UK Government to publicly condemn this military honoured funeral, and push for the end of such vile glorification, denial of genocide, and continued promotion of hatred and division.”