Ratko Mladić lived far longer than thousands of his victims ever had the chance to, and far longer than he deserved. And now Serbia’s government is preparing to accord him full military and state honours at his burial. Let that sink in. A man who died while serving a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes is apparently considered worthy of state honour. This is not patriotism. It is moral rot. Mladić commanded the Bosnian Serb Army during some of the darkest crimes committed in Europe since the Second World War. In Srebrenica, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were systematically murdered after his forces overran the UN-declared safe area, while around 25,000 women, children and elderly people were forcibly expelled. Mladić was convicted of genocide for his role. In Sarajevo, his forces subjected civilians to years of shelling and sniper terror. People were shot while crossing streets, fetching water, standing in queues, trying to feed their families or simply trying to stay alive. He was convicted of murder, terror and unlawful attacks on civilians, as well as persecution, extermination, deportation, forced transfer and hostage-taking. These are judicially established crimes. And now Serbia’s Justice Minister says Mladić should receive military and state honours at his burial. There is something profoundly fucking nauseating about a state taking a convicted genocidaire and wrapping his coffin in national honour, as if the mass graves were merely an inconvenient footnote to his biography. And if you want to understand exactly what kind of legacy is being honoured, watch the video below. The man in it is Ramo Osmanović. On 13 July 1995, two days after Srebrenica fell, thousands of Bosniak men and boys were trying to escape through the forests toward Bosnian government-held territory. Ramo had already been captured. His 18-year-old son, Nermin, was still hiding in the woods. Bosnian Serb forces forced Ramo to call out to him and persuade him to surrender. Imagine being a prisoner surrounded by armed men, knowing your child is somewhere in the forest, and being forced to use the one thing your son trusts more than anything else, your own voice, to bring him out. “Nermine, dođi!” “Nermin, come!” Nermin heard his father and came down. Ramo and Nermin Osmanović were subsequently murdered by Mladić’s forces and buried in mass graves alongside thousands of other men and boys. Their remains were later recovered and identified. The footage itself was eventually shown during the proceedings against Ratko Mladić. That is why the image of Ramo, hands around his mouth, desperately calling “Nermine, dođi!”, became one of the defining images of Srebrenica. A captured father forced to call his son out of hiding with assurances of safety. A son trusting his father’s voice. Both of them murdered. More than three decades later, the commander of the forces responsible is being prepared for burial with military and state honours. You cannot seriously talk about reconciliation, European values or confronting the past while glorifying a man convicted of genocide. You cannot turn a genocidaire into a national symbol and then pretend that the victims matter too. The victims deserved honour. Ratko Mladić deserved his conviction, his life sentence and the historical disgrace attached to his name. Anything beyond that is glorification of a genocidaire, and it is absolutely fucking nauseating.