The Council of Europe warned on Friday that the “glorification” of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, who died in a prison in The Hague in late August, is a crime under Bosnian law.
The warning came after the remains of Mladic, who was convicted in 1995 of genocide - and other crimes - in connection with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, were received with military honours in Serbia on Thursday.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty said he abhorred the public glorification of Mladic, who died on 27 August at the age of 84.
In Bosnia, several thousand people paid tribute to him on Tuesday evening in Banja Luka, the main city of the Serb entity.
Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian war.
The conflict, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, killed nearly 100,000 people.
“Such glorification constitutes a crime under the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina and does not fall within freedom of expression as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights,” O’Flaherty said.
“I call on the authorities to oppose the glorification of convicted war criminals,” he added.
Serbia and Bosnia are both members of the Council of Europe, a 46-country body based in Strasbourg.
The organisation is responsible for upholding the European Convention on Human Rights through the European Court of Human Rights.
