The tifo unfurled at the Marakana on Sunday 6 September showed the face of a man who is still, in law, a convicted war criminal. Red Star Belgrade’s ultras held aloft a giant image of Ratko Mladic before kick-off in the derby against Partizan, the club observed a minute of silence in his memory, and its official channels posted a tribute video with a salute emoji.

Across the stands ran the slogan “Pravac Potocari”, “Direction Potocari”, a reference to the village outside Srebrenica where, in July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed by forces under Mladic’s command.

Mladic died on 27 August in a United Nations prison in The Hague, where he was serving a life sentence. His body was flown to Belgrade on a Serbian government plane on 3 September, received with military honors, and given a state funeral on Monday 7 September, the day after the derby.

A minute of silence at the Marakana

Slobodan Georgiev, news director at TV Nova S in Serbia, told Al Jazeera that the club’s own participation crossed a line the terraces had not.

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“Glorifying a convicted war criminal is nothing new, but officially paying tribute to him with a minute of silence is new, and it’s the most shameful event this stadium has witnessed.”

Partizan’s hardcore supporters, the Grobari, had already staged their own tribute the week before, unfurling a banner reading “General, thank you” during a Super Liga match against OFK Beograd on 31 August and flying Mladic’s flag over the north stand throughout the game.

UEFA fine and a canceled EU trip

The scandal was already live before the derby. On 5 September UEFA fined Red Star €90,000 for supporter conduct at the club’s Europa League play-off second leg at Viktoria Plzen on 27 August, where fans chanted Mladic’s name, performed military-style salutes and displayed a banner praising him. UEFA classified the behavior as racist and discriminatory and said the messages were unfit for a sporting event. The sanction also barred the club from selling tickets to its supporters for its next European away fixture.

European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos scrapped her planned visit to Serbia the same week over Belgrade’s handling of Mladic’s death.

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“In this context, I have decided not to proceed with my planned visit to Serbia at this time,” Kos said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic dismissed her decision as “very short but stupid” in comments carried by regional broadcaster N1.

What Mladic was convicted of

Mladic commanded the Bosnian Serb Army through the war of 1992-1995. In 2017 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced him to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. In 2021 the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals upheld the verdict on appeal, affirming the finding of genocide at Srebrenica.

Beyond Srebrenica, Mladic was convicted over the siege of Sarajevo, in which more than 10,000 people were killed.

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