EU leaders condemn Serbia's funeral honors for Ratko Mladic, raising doubts over membership bid

BRUSSELS -- Top European Union officials on Tuesday expressed shock after Serbia gave a hero’s funeral to Ratko Mladic, a Bosnian Serb general who died while serving a life sentence for war crimes, and questioned Serbia’s fitness to join their bloc.Mladic was buried in Belgrade on Monday with military honors. The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, led the funeral service and Serbian army soldiers carried Mladic’s flag-draped coffin at the cemetery.Several Serbian government ministers attended the service for the man known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” and found guilty of committing the continent’s first genocide since World War II. Mladic is still considered a hero by many Serbs.“The images from Ratko Mladic’s funeral yesterday in Belgrade were shocking,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on social media.“The elements of official support and the presence of some senior Serbian officials at the funeral are deeply regrettable,” von der Leyen and Costa said. “They demonstrate a failure to confront a dark chapter in Europe’s recent history and contradict the values underpinning Serbia’s path...