08/09/2026
Moonlight Trust strongly Condems Serbia's State Honouring of Ratko Mladić
We are appalled by the decision of the Serbian state to honour Ratko Mladić — a man convicted by the United Nations of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity —with military honours and a state-facilitated funeral.
Mladić was found responsible for some of the darkest atrocities on European soil since the Second World War, including the Srebrenica genocide, in which over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were systematically murdered, and the prolonged siege of Sarajevo, which claimed thousands of civilian lives. His conviction was upheld by the highest international courts. There is no ambiguity about his guilt.
To see him draped in his nation's flag, saluted by soldiers, and mourned with state ceremony is not an act of private grief — it is a public act of glorification. It sends an unmistakable message to survivors, to victims' families, and to the world: that genocide can be rebranded as heroism if the political will exists to do so.
We stand with the survivors of Srebrenica, the families who lost loved ones, and all those in the region who have spent decades seeking truth, justice, and reconciliation. Honouring a convicted génocidaire with the machinery of the state does not heal division — it deepens it, and it insults the memory of every victim.
We call on:
The Serbian government to account publicly for its role in facilitating these honours
The European Union and international community to maintain firm pressure and conditionality on Serbia's path to membership until it demonstrates genuine reckoning with this history
All people of conscience to reject the rewriting of history that seeks to turn perpetrators into martyrs
Never again must remain more than a slogan. We will not stay silent while atrocities are honoured instead of acknowledged.
