Jandroković says Europe's soft politics approach won't work with Serbia

The former commander of Bosnian Serbian forces and convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić was buried in Belgrade on Monday, where he received a massive send off from like-minded citizens but also a number of Serbian politicians. His glorification in Belgrade has been widely condemned by political leaders in the region, but initially received only luke-warm commentary from the European Commission.

Speaking after a meeting of the Parliamentary Presidency on Tuesday, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković commented on yesterday’s funeral for Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladić in Belgrade, where he received a massive send-off that was attended by many Serbian politicians. Jandroković noted that the situation in Serbia should not be ignored, and warned that the Europe's approach of soft politics will not work: "Serbia is arming itself. You have three elements indicating that the situation is serious and that we cannot take it lightly. Historical revisionism, inciting propaganda and arming. What they're doing is returning to the 1990's. The policy we defeated is now coming back and we must take this very seriously. So I am not interested in the views of the European Commission or other countries, because we know very well what the truth is."

And while European officials remained relatively restrained in their commentary on Monday, with European Commission President Urusla von der Leyen posting on social media that the scene in Belgrade was "shocking", while an EU spokesperson warned that glorifying convicted war criminals, denying genocide and rewriting history is incompatible with European values. On Tuesday however, EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos offered a stronger response when she cancelled a planned visit to Serbia, saying the glorification of Mladić was incompatible with the country's path towards EU membership. Kos added that Serbia must confront its past, work towards reconciliation and respect the victims of war crimes.

Serbia has been an EU candidate country since 2012 and began accession negotiations in 2014. However, it has made only limited process in its accession process.

Known as the "Butcher of Bosnia", Mladić died in a Hague prison hospital in late August at the age of 84 while serving out a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and other war crimes committed during the Serbian wars of aggression in the 1990's. He is most widely known for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, when Bosnian Serb forces killed around 8,000 Muslim men and boys after taking control of the UN-declared safe area.

Source: HRT