GENERAL MLADIĆ'S TREATMENT IN SERBIA OR RUSSIA SHOULD BE URGENTLY APPROVED

BANJA LUKA, AUGUST 21 /SRNA/ - The Organization of Senior Officers of the Republika Srpska Army has said that General Ratko Mladić should be urgently granted appropriate medical treatment and examined by relevant medical specialists from Serbia and/or Russia and that there are grounds to believe that the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals has assumed the role of carrying out the forced euthanasia of Serbs convicted by the Hague Tribunal.

The Organization said that General Mladić's health has deteriorated drastically following a second stroke, but also as a result of prolonged inadequate medical treatment and care at the Hague Tribunal's detention unit in Scheveningen.

"The latest information on General Mladić's health is a warning and a wake-up call - either you are human, or you are inhuman; future generations and God will not forgive you," the Organization of Senior Officers of the Army of Republika Srpska said, stressing that it is following reports on Mladić's health with great concern.

They called on all international humanitarian organizations to demonstrate through their actions their genuine commitment to their proclaimed goals, which include upholding human dignity in full and providing necessary assistance to all those in need, and urged the authorities in Serbia and Republika Srpska not to give up the fight for fundamental human rights.

The Organization of Senior Officers said that the conduct of the Hague Mechanism in the case of General Ratko Mladić was shameful and inhuman, adding that such conduct has rarely been seen in the history of human civilization.

"Under the universal principles of `natural law,` as well as the key principles of international humanitarian and health law, every person in the world has the right to adequate healthcare and appropriate medical treatment," they added in the statement.

General Mladić's son, Darko Mladić, told SRNA that the general is in the worst condition he has ever been in, and confirmed that a cardiologist from Serbia would examine him today and that The Hague is expected to provide the cardiologist with his medical records.

Republika Srpska Justice Minister Goran Selak announced that Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujić would submit a new request to Graciela Gatti Santana, president of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, for General Mladić to be allowed to receive treatment in Serbia or Republika Srpska, given his extremely serious health condition.

General Mladić has been in a detention hospital in The Hague since 2024, where he is receiving palliative care.

The Mechanism has repeatedly rejected requests for him to be released temporarily to receive medical treatment in Serbia.