The Association of Genocide Victims and Witnesses and the Association “Movement of the Mothers of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves” rejected Aleksandar Vučić’s request that Ratko Mladić be released or sent to Serbia for treatment. Their response came after Vučić’s speech, sharpening a dispute over whether a legally convicted war criminal can be moved on political pressure.
The two associations said the request should not determine the decision on Mladić. They also pointed to an earlier pattern: requests from Mladić’s defense for release or treatment in Serbia had already been rejected on the basis of reports from independent medical experts.
Serbia and the request for Mladić
Vučić, the President of Serbia, asked for Mladić’s release or referral to Serbia for treatment. The argument now runs through a narrow procedural lane, not a political one. Under the rules described in the source, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts bases decisions on expert assessments from its own and independent bodies, not on political initiatives or public appeals.
That framework is the point of friction in this case. The associations are not asking the mechanism to revisit a fresh medical finding; they are rejecting a political appeal that they say should not move a decision already governed by expert review. The source frames Mladić as a legally convicted war criminal, which is why any change in his custody or treatment arrangement carries legal weight beyond a routine transfer request.
Srebrenica and Žepa response
The Association of Genocide Victims and Witnesses and the Association “Movement of the Mothers of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves” tied their response to the experience of Srebrenica and Žepa. Their intervention places the dispute in the hands of groups whose members would read any release or transfer request through the record that led to Mladić’s conviction, not through the political language of a speech.
For readers watching what happens next, the relevant decision-maker is the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts, not Serbia and not public pressure. The source does not set out a new hearing date or deadline. It does make one thing clear: any new request would still have to pass the same expert-based test that had already led previous release or treatment requests in Serbia to be rejected.
