BELGRADE -- EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos has canceled a planned visit to Serbia after a government plane flew the body of convicted Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic to Belgrade, where soldiers carried his Serbian flag-draped coffin from the aircraft.Mladic died on August 27 in a UN prison hospital in The Hague at the age of 84. He was serving a life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity. His remains were handed over to the Serbian authorities on September 3 at Rotterdam The Hague Airport.Writing on X about her decision to cancel her upcoming visit, Kos said: "The glorification surrounding his death is incompatible with the values on which the EU path is built. That path requires confronting the past, genuine reconciliation, and respecting the victims of war crimes.""The values that underpin our common future are not negotiable. In this context, I have decided not to proceed with my planned visit to Serbia at this time," Kos wrote.
Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic was also on the plane from the Netherlands, along with family and family of Mladic, whose forces laid siege to Sarajevo and carried out the 1995 Srebrenica massacre killing more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys.Kos was expected to visit Serbia, an official candidate to join the EU, on September 9-10 in a routine trip and to attend an event hosted by the Slovakia-based think tank GLOBSEC.Earlier in the day, Kos warned that the behavior of Serbian authorities regarding the burial of Mladic will be a big test for official Belgrade.Speaking in Dublin, Kos said, “It's not only about the technical part, [about] what they are doing in the accession process...it is about how they align with our values."
