Algeria: The striking tifo from NAHD fans against Serbian criminal Ratko Mladic

Photo: TSA

Football stadiums in Algeria are not just leisure centers. They also serve as a platform for youth activism. Fans of Nasr Hussein-Dey took the opportunity of a match to send a clear message that reflects a high level of political awareness.

Through a tifo, they responded to Serbian supporters who indecently celebrated war criminal Ratko Mladic, condemned by international justice. This tifo resonated internationally, particularly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other former Yugoslav nations. 

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Ratko Mladic, a war criminal shamefully celebrated in Serbia 

Ratko Mladic, former military leader of the Bosnian Serbs, is infamous for orchestrating the genocide of Bosnian Muslims during the conflict that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. He is nicknamed the "butcher of Srebrenica" due to the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in that Bosnian city in 1995. 

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Mladic was arrested in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague in 2017. He died in custody on August 27 at the age of 83, and was celebrated by nationalist and far-right circles in Serbia. Supporters of Serbian football clubs also paid tribute to him, provoking outrage from the global public. 

The resounding response from Nasr Hussein-Dey supporters 

The response came from the crowd of an Algerian club. It was last Saturday during the second division match between Nasr Hussein-Dey and Chabab de Taghit, held at the Dar El Beida Stadium (Algiers). In the stands, supporters of the Algiers club held up a tifo with a concise three-word phrase in English that puts the war criminal in his rightful place: “Enjoy hell Rat-Ko.”

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By choosing English, the Algerian supporters aimed to ensure their message was understood globally. Additionally, the small hyphen in the middle of the criminal's name subtly emphasizes the most fitting qualifier for him. 

In Serbia, Mladic does not have only supporters. In fact, in addition to the reaction from Bosnians, the Algerian tifo was praised by many Serbian media and internet users. The act of the NAHD crowd has also been reported and analyzed by media from several nations.