Serbian lawyer Čedomir Stojković has accused Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić of pursuing a double policy regarding the state treatment of Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and war crimes.

His reaction came after a ceremony held on Saturday at the House of the Serbian Army in Belgrade. According to Stojković, while Belgrade sends different messages to Western countries, Serbian authorities are honoring Mladić at one of the capital’s most important state and military facilities, KosovaPress reports.

“Vučić’s double game,” the Serbian lawyer wrote, claiming that the president makes “anti-European” decisions but then tries to present the situation to the West as if he bears no responsibility for them.

Stojković said that the ceremony organized at the House of the Serbian Army represented one of the greatest state honors ever bestowed on Mladić.

Those present at the September 5 event included Serbia’s Justice Minister Nenad Vujić, Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan, two ministers from the entity and former Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Šainović. During the speeches, Mladić was described as a “great leader,” a “top professional” and an “honest officer.”

According to Stojković’s interpretation, holding the ceremony at a Ministry of Defense facility constitutes a clear political signal. He claims that through this event, the Government of Serbia is assuming political responsibility for honoring a person convicted of genocide.

The lawyer also criticized Belgrade’s approach to the process of integration into the European Union. He argues that the glorification of Mladić conflicts with European values.

The European Union has also reacted to the way Mladić is being treated. European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos canceled her planned visit to Serbia, saying that honoring a person convicted of war crimes and genocide is incompatible with the values on which the path toward the EU is based.

The United Nations mechanism for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia sentenced Mladić to life imprisonment. In the final judgment, he was found guilty, among other offenses, of the genocide in Srebrenica, persecution, deportation and murder, as well as terrorizing civilians during the siege of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia has stated that the state and military honors for Mladić are illegal. The organization referred to the fact that his military rank had been revoked following the final judgment in 2021.

In his reaction, Stojković used the case to describe how, in his view, power operates in Serbia. He claims that in an authoritarian system, the Government’s key decisions are actually decisions made by the president.

Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army, who was convicted by an international court of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995, died on August 27 at the age of 84.

His burial is expected to take place on September 7 at Topčider Cemetery.

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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic recently stated that Milan Radoicic, who has admitted responsibility for the armed attack on the Kosovo Police in Banjska, Zvecan, in September 2023 and for whom Interpol has issued a red notice, is not being investigated for any specific criminal offense. According to Vucic, the case against him is related to the “Kosovo issue” and not to actual crimes.

This statement once again brings Milan Radoicic into the center of international political and legal debate, as questions grow over how his case is being handled and over responsibility for the Banjska attack. At the same time, this situation deepens doubts about Serbia’s relationship with justice mechanisms and the possibility of Radoicic facing justice.

Speaking to “Bota sot” about this issue, Serbian lawyer Cedomir Stojkovic said that Radoicic, in cooperation with Serbia’s secret services, organized an attack on Kosovo with the aim of creating a scenario similar to “Donbas.”

He stressed that from the very beginning it had been clear that Vucic would not act to arrest Radoicic.

“Immediately after Milan Radoicic, together with Serbia’s secret services, organized a terrorist attack in Kosovo with the aim of creating a ‘Donbas’ scenario based on Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, I publicly announced that the criminal proceedings against him in Serbia were merely a Roshomoniyad and a performance for the international community. From the very beginning it was clear that Vucic would not arrest Radoicic, because Vucic employed Radoicic to carry out the attack in Banjska,” he said.

Stojkovic also said that after the plan was exposed and the “Donbas” scenario in Kosovo failed, Vucic began efforts to create public distance from Radoicic before the international community. According to him, the investigation in Belgrade was opened within this framework as well, which he describes as staged and built to produce a political narrative.

According to the Serbian lawyer, these moves were not undertaken to punish Radoicic, but to manage the government’s image and avoid responsibility.

“When the plan was uncovered and the ‘Donbas’ scenario in Kosovo was prevented by the activity of Kosovo’s security services, Vucic then tried to wash himself clean of Radoicic before the public of the international community. This is why he ordered the prosecution office in Belgrade, which he controls, to launch a fictitious investigation against Radoicic, with only one goal: to turn it into a circus performance for naive politicians in the West. To naive politicians in the West, Vucic claimed: ‘I have nothing at all to do with Banjska, nor with Radoicic. Look, the prosecution office in Belgrade is conducting proceedings against Radoicic,’ but this was a lie. In fact, it is true that Vucic organized Banjska through Radoicic, and then, in order to hide his ties to him, ordered proceedings to be launched against him, but in such a way that Radoicic would never be arrested and that a ruling against him would never be issued in Serbia. This is why the proceedings against Radoicic in Serbia have been false from the beginning, because they are not aimed at convicting him, but at saving Vucic in the international community. I stated this in 2023, and now, three years later, you can see how right I was. Radoicic is still a free man, as I claimed he would be, and he will remain so as long as Vucic is in power, because he also controls the court and the prosecution. There is no independent judiciary in Serbia,” the Serbian lawyer elaborated.

He further underlined that, in his assessment, almost three years after the event in Banjska, President Vucic is behaving increasingly more relaxed about this issue because it is fading both in public opinion and internationally.

Stojkovic stressed that this, in his view, has pushed Vucic to say that Radoicic committed no crime, even though there were victims from that event. He added that the incident, according to him, was part of a broader scenario prepared for actions of a military nature.

“Now that almost three years have passed since then, Vucic feels calmer about Banjska because he notices that Banjska is being forgotten more and more, and for that reason he is now increasingly saying that Radoicic committed no crime even though people died because of the terrorist attack in Banjska. Although it is wrong to call that attack a ‘terrorist attack,’ it was preparation for the military invasion of Kosovo through Milan Radoicic’s paramilitary group, a group organized by the Serbian secret service commanded by Vucic. That invasion was planned according to Putin’s model in Donbas in 2014 and 2022.

This is why it is now more important than ever for the international community to be reminded of this, because Aleksandar Vucic’s goals are always the same, only the international circumstances are different now. His goal is the same. And if Milan Radoicic remains free, that means it is possible to send paramilitary attacks into Kosovo without punishment and without fear, because the perpetrators are never arrested. And if Serbia thinks this way, that only means the same thing will be tried again,” Cedomir Stojkovic concluded for “Bota sot”.

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