Top European Union officials voiced outrage Tuesday after Serbia gave Ratko Mladic a hero's funeral, raising fresh doubts about the country's readiness to join the bloc.
Mladic was buried in Belgrade Monday with military honors. The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, led the funeral service and Serbian army soldiers carried Mladic's flag-draped coffin at the cemetery.
Several Serbian government ministers attended the service for the man known as the "Butcher of Bosnia" and found guilty of committing the continent's first genocide since World War II. Mladic is still considered a hero by many Serbs.
"The images from Ratko Mladic's funeral yesterday in Belgrade were shocking," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on social media.
"The elements of official support and the presence of some senior Serbian officials at the funeral are deeply regrettable," von der Leyen and Costa said. "They demonstrate a failure to confront a dark chapter in Europe's recent history and contradict the values underpinning Serbia's path towards the European Union."
