{"id":20052,"date":"2026-04-23T08:07:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/?p=20052"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:19:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:19:34","slug":"the-city-of-belgrade-must-not-glorify-war-criminals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/the-city-of-belgrade-must-not-glorify-war-criminals\/","title":{"rendered":"The City of Belgrade Must Not Glorify War Criminals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several Serbian officials, led by Minister of Justice Nenad Vuji\u0107, have used the deteriorating health of Ratko Mladi\u0107 as an opportunity to continue the practice of downplaying or denying the crimes for which Mladi\u0107 was convicted. By visiting Mladi\u0107 in The Hague, Minister Vuji\u0107 effectively became his megaphone, relaying messages to the \u201cSerbs and Serbia,\u201d while Belgrade Mayor \u0160api\u0107 replicated on social media what once existed as a mural dedicated to Mladi\u0107 in Njego\u0161eva Street in Belgrade.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, on April 1, Minister of the Interior Ivica Da\u010di\u0107 referred to three war criminals – Mladi\u0107, Jovica Stani\u0161i\u0107, and Franko Simatovi\u0107 – as his \u201cfriends and associates who were important for our people and our state.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor \u0160api\u0107 has previously promoted war criminals such as Veselin \u0160ljivan\u010danin. The majority in the Belgrade City Assembly, led by \u0160api\u0107, had earlier appointed Svetozar Andri\u0107, a former officer in Mladi\u0107\u2019s Drina Corps against whom criminal complaints for war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been filed, as a member of the City Council. Although most members of the Commission for Monuments and the Names of Squares and Streets of the City of Belgrade rejected last year \u0160api\u0107\u2019s proposal to erect a monument dedicated to war criminal and collaborator Dragoljub Mihailovi\u0107 near Terazije Square, \u0160api\u0107 soon after proposed a new location for the same monument, at U\u0161\u0107e in Belgrade.<\/span><\/p>\n

In response to the Youth Initiative for Human Rights\u2019 2022 request to remove the mural of Mladi\u0107 in Njego\u0161eva Street, \u0160api\u0107 described the initiative as \u201cfulfilling The Hague\u2019s wishes,\u201d claiming he did not know whether Mladi\u0107 had committed crimes, but was certain that he had \u201cdefended the Serbian people.\u201d For three years, Belgrade\u2019s municipal authorities have failed to inform us whether they will remove more than 250 murals and graffiti glorifying Ratko Mladi\u0107 as a hero.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past several years, there is hardly a part of the city where graffiti featuring the name, image, and legacy of Ratko Mladi\u0107 has not appeared, while citizens who took it upon themselves to clean facades and walls in their local communities have become targets of hooligan groups. These attacks have intensified, alongside the illegal defacement of streets, parks, facades, and public institutions. The current Mayor of Belgrade has not once publicly condemned this practice or the intimidation of citizens by hooligan groups engaged in the organized destruction and defacement of public space. On the contrary, his statements have contributed to such lawlessness.<\/span><\/p>\n

The full text of the complaint in BHS you can read it: here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Youth Initiative for Human Rights has filed a complaint with the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality against the Mayor of the City of Belgrade, Aleksandar \u0160api\u0107, after he posted a photograph of Ratko Mladi\u0107 on social media on Saturday, April 18, 2026, accompanied by the message that this war criminal is a \u201cSerbian hero.\u201d We consider such a statement by a public official of the City of Belgrade to constitute hate speech and a severe form of discrimination against Bosniak and Croatian communities. We call on all councilor groups in the Belgrade City Assembly to condemn the glorification of war criminals.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1479],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe City of Belgrade Must Not Glorify War Criminals - YIHR.rs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/yihr.rs\/en\/the-city-of-belgrade-must-not-glorify-war-criminals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The City of Belgrade Must Not Glorify War Criminals - YIHR.rs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Youth Initiative for Human Rights has filed a complaint with the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality against the Mayor of the City of Belgrade, Aleksandar \u0160api\u0107, after he posted a photograph of Ratko Mladi\u0107 on social media on Saturday, April 18, 2026, accompanied by the message that this war criminal is a \u201cSerbian hero.\u201d We consider such a statement by a public official of the City of Belgrade to constitute hate speech and a severe form of discrimination against Bosniak and Croatian communities. 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