The United Kingdom has formally expressed strong disapproval of Serbia following the state and military honors accorded at the funeral of Ratko Mladic, a convicted war criminal. Mladic, who died at 84 while serving a life sentence, was buried in Belgrade on Monday with military ceremonies, prompting a diplomatic protest from British officials.

Mladic, often referred to as the "Butcher of Bosnia," was found guilty by a United Nations war crimes tribunal for his involvement in atrocities committed during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Most notably, he was convicted of genocide related to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which approximately 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed. The massacre has been described as the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

In response to the funeral proceedings, the UK’s special envoy to the Western Balkans, Dame Karen Pierce, summoned Serbia’s charge d’affaires in London to issue a formal rebuke. British Europe Minister Lord Wood of Anfield criticized the participation of Serbian state and military officials in the funeral, emphasizing that Mladic's crimes, as determined by an independent UN tribunal, included genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Lord Wood stated that any denial or attempt to whitewash these crimes undermines international law.

Serbia’s decision to grant Mladic military honors has drawn widespread condemnation internationally, underscoring ongoing tensions in the Balkans related to the legacy of the 1990s conflicts and the pursuit of justice for wartime atrocities.