MLADIĆ'S BROTHERS-IN-ARMS REMEMBER HIS "NO RETREAT!" AS OATH

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 7 /SRNA/ - Outside the Church of St. Luke in Belgrade's Vidikovac neighborhood, where the coffin containing the mortal remains of General Ratko Mladić is on display, his former comrades-in-arms from Republika Srpska are once again standing by their beloved general, as they once did in battle, remembering his words "No retreat!" as an oath, SRNA’s correspondent reports from the scene.

Among the honor guard paying their final respects to the general was Predrag Ilić from Bileća, who will remember him as a hero and savior of the Serb people.

"He is our pride forever," Ilić told SRNA.

Veselin Vujović from Bileća said that Mladić was an uncompromising warrior and that the Serb people know that there was no "retreat" for him.

Many people from Sokolac also came to bid their final farewell, wearing shirts bearing the general's image and carrying him in their hearts, and Draženko Janković told SRNA that he had been with the general throughout the entire war, describing him as a unique man and military commander.

"He deserves for us to come to his funeral and pay our respects, but also to dedicate the brightest pages of our history to him," he said.

Visibly moved, Dušan Dujaković from Ozren bid farewell to the general, saying that six of them were standing in the honor guard, while hundreds of people from his region had come to Belgrade.

"He was a hero, a brother, a commander - everything in one man," Dujaković said.
Serbs from various parts of the country are patiently waiting in kilometer-long lines outside the Church of St. Luke to bid farewell to General Mladić.

The final farewell to General Mladić began this morning shortly before 7:00, when a requiem liturgy was served, while at noon His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije will serve the memorial service.

A procession will then be formed and will proceed toward Topčider Cemetery, where General Mladić will be buried.

Ratko Mladić died at a detention hospital in The Hague on August 27, after the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague repeatedly rejected requests for him to be released for medical treatment in Serbia.