Ankara: Britain on Tuesday summoned Serbia's top diplomat in the UK to condemn commemorations surrounding this week's funeral of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic. Announcing the summoning of Serbia's charge d'affaires, the UK Foreign Office said in a statement that Mladic presided over crimes that are "among the worst committed in Europe since the Second World War."

According to Anadolu Agency, the Foreign Office emphasized that the denial and whitewashing of Mladic's crimes is an affront to international law and directly undermines regional stability and trust. A spokesperson for the Foreign Office stated that political leaders and public institutions have a "responsibility to look to the future, not to the past," and to act in ways that support regional reconciliation, rather than reopening old wounds.

The statement further highlighted that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established by the UN Security Council and Serbia is obliged to respect its judgments. It added that the glorification of a convicted war criminal directly undermines trust, fuels division, and is incompatible with the process of reconciliation within Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.

Mladic, a former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, died in The Hague on August 27 at age 84 while serving a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. He was convicted of crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, including genocide for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed.