DIMITRIJEVIĆ: RATKO MLADIĆ’S NAME WILL REMAIN BRIGHT IN HISTORY

BELGRADE, August 28 /SRNA/ – Historian Bojan Dimitrijević, biographer of General Ratko Mladić, told SRNA that General Mladić will be remembered as one of the outstanding figures in 20th-century history of Serbs, adding that it is encouraging that younger generations in Republika Srpska and Serbia recognise the general's legacy, which will remain bright regardless of those who seek to diminish it and who rejoice at his diparture.

Dimitrijević said that General Mladić will be remembered in history as one of the key figures who contributed to the defense of Republika Srpska, as the man who commanded the Republika Srpska Army and whose determination influenced both the Srpska political leadership and the soldiers, who regarded him as a charismatic military commander.

He stressed that General Mladić enjoyed unquestioned and widespread popularity among the people, unlike many politicians.

"If General Mladić had been obeyed in certain cases, the outcome of the war would probably have been different. I am primarily referring to certain events in 1992 and 1993, and for that he will truly be remembered as one of the outstanding figures in 20th-century history of Serbs," Dimitrijević said.

He stressed that all the accusations made against General Mladić at the Hague Tribunal were essentially false and, as such, would not tarnish his historical reputation, which would endure in the future.

Dimitrijević said he was not surprised by the reaction of the Muslim establishment, the Sarajevo political and social circles, and the “paid advocates of the Srebrenica narrative” to the news of General Mladić’s death, adding that such reactions would continue, but that what matters is how the general is viewed by his own people.

"I am pleased that among the younger generations in Serbia and Republika Srpska his name remains bright and it will remain so regardless of who and how the general is described by those on the enemy sides of the 1990s wars. The significance of his work for the Serb people is such that whatever anyone on the other side says can be summed up by the old proverb: `The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on,`" Dimitrijević said.

He noted that in 2001 and 2002, while serving as an adviser to Serbia's President Boris Tadić, he had the opportunity to meet and speak with General Mladić, who was living in his neighbourhood in Banovo Brdo in Belgrade, and that they later exchanged several letters concerning the biography.

"He had the opportunity to read it and sent me several letters. The last one was a few months ago. He wrote to me in very difficult handwriting, which particularly affected me because I could tell from his handwriting that General Mladić was not well. But I was also very pleased that he had praised the biography I wrote about him and the Republika Srpska Army, which I also covered in one of my books," Dimitrijević said.

According to him, Mladić's wartime actions inspired him to study his life and leave a record of what the general was truly like.

“Because if his biography is not written by someone from Serbia, we can see that no one from the region or abroad will do it, or they will portray him in the darkest possible terms. Therefore, my task as a Serbian historian was to present General Mladić fairly, at least to the Serb public, so that it would know who the general was, as well as the many trials he faced during that wartime struggle,” Dimitrijević stressed.

General Ratko Mladić, wartime commander of the Main Staff of the Republika Srpska Army, died yesterday at a detention hospital in The Hague at the age of 83.

General Mladić had been in the detention hospital in The Hague since 2024, where he had reportedly been bedridden for the past year and a half. The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague had rejected requests for him to be released on humanitarian grounds for medical treatment in Serbia.

The Mechanism said that President Graciela Santana had "ordered an investigation into the death of General Mladić at the detention hospital in The Hague".