Petigru writes to Commissioner Marta Kos: EU should sanction Serbia for glorifying war criminal Ratko Mladić

David Petigru, a professor at Southern Connecticut State University, with the support of the “World for Bosnia” initiative, has sent a letter to European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, expressing serious concern over the recent burial and public glorification of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić in Serbia, as the newspaper Danas reports.

The letter highlights the participation of at least six Serbian state officials in the funeral ceremony, the use of state resources, including military personnel, as well as the statements of the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch, Porfirije, who praised Mladić. According to the signatories, these actions mock the rule of law and the fundamental values of Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union.

The letter also notes the continued refusal of former Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić toward the 2024 UN General Assembly resolution that declared July 11 the International Day of Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

The signatories call on the European Commission to review Serbia’s path toward EU membership, unless Belgrade takes concrete steps and stops the glorification of war criminals and the denial of genocide; they demand the suspension of further EU funding for Serbia, sanctions against the officials who took part in the glorification, as well as the inclusion of these events in the upcoming annual progress report for Serbia.

The “World for Bosnia” initiative includes organizations and activists from Australia, Belgium, Brussels, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, Danas reports.