Ratko Mladic’s funeral casts shadow over Bosnia and Herzegovina vote

Belgrade has made a point of insisting that it did not organize a state funeral for former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic , who was convicted of genocide in Srebrenica and crimes against humanity in 2017.

But when the body of a war criminal is flown home accompanied by the country's justice minister, when ceremonies unfold with military honors in state-controlled venues in the presence of senior political leaders and when clear condemnation of glorification of the deceased is absent, the message is unambiguous.

The impact of this message is being felt beyond Serbia's borders.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina — the state created by the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which comprises two entities linked by a weak central government — reactions were as deeply divided as the country itself.

Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity covering about 49% of the country's territory, sent its officials to the funeral .

Public discourse there was dominated by narratives of "defending the people" and "the injustice of international courts."

"Without Ratko Mladic , there would be no Republika Srpska," was the refrain among thousands of mourners at the funeral in Belgrade .

Sarajevo , the seat of the central government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, sees this approach as a continued policy of relativizing war crimes and a threat to stability.