(CNN) — Ratko Mladić, the Bosnian-Serb general convicted of genocide, will be buried with the “highest military and state honors,” Serbia’s Minister of Justice Nenad Vujić announced Friday, according to the country’s state-run broadcaster.
Mladić, 84, died at the UN Detention Unit in The Hague on Thursday, after serving 15 years of his life sentence.
It was not clear whether the plans include a full state funeral for the convicted war criminal. The Serbian government did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. According to Vujić, the burial location would be decided by the Mladić family.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić told the media that if “the family wishes for him to be buried in Serbia, we will organize everything in a decent and dignified manner.”
Known as the “Butcher of Bosnia,” Mladić personally orchestrated some of the worst war crimes of the Balkan wars, including the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre.
More than 10,000 people, including many children, died during the two-year siege of Sarajevo and more than 7,000 Muslims, mostly men and boys were slaughtered within a few days in Srebrenica in July 1995.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found him guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, persecution, extermination, murder, terror, unlawful attacks on civilians and hostage-taking.
Emir Suljagic, a Srebrenica survivor who heads the Srebrenica Memorial Center, said in a statement on Thursday that Mladić’s death “does not change much.”
“It doesn’t bring back the dead. It doesn’t clear mass graves. It does not change judgment,” he said. “Now the hardest part of the job remains: not to let the truth, responsibility and memory die with him.”
But despite being widely recognized as a war criminal, Mladić remains a popular figure among some Serbs. The plans to honor Mladić sparked a wave of criticism from the pro-European opposition in the country, but were welcomed by many nationalists.
Some pro-government media in Serbia also referred to Mladić as a hero and questioned his treatment in The Hague.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement expressing Moscow’s condolences to Mladić’s family and friends. Serbia has been one of Russia’s closest allies in Europe, despite Belgrade’s stated ambition to join the European Union.
In the statement, the ministry also criticized the ICTY and said: “The Russian side consistently pointed out that the trial of R. Mladić in The Hague and the conditions of his detention were accompanied by disregard for his basic rights.”
Mladić was also widely mourned in Republika Srpska, the ethnic Serb-controlled part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The entity’s Prime Minister Savo Minić praised Mladić as a national hero and memorial events were held in multiple locations across the region.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bosniak and Croat part of the country, criticized what they called attempts to “publicly glorify a convicted war criminal.”
As Mladić’s health deteriorated in recent months, the right-wing Serbian government repeatedly campaigned for him to be released to a hospital in Belgrade. The most recent of these appeals was made by Vujić on Monday.
Vujić said on Friday that he would send a letter to The Hague asking for an investigation into Mladić’s death and treatment. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, the body that carries out the functions of the now-dissolved ICTY, said it would launch a full inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Mladić’s death, which is common practice when a high-profile prisoner dies.
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