BOSNIA: Serbs rally in their thousands in a show of support for accused war criminal Ratko Mladic

Record ID: 561128

  • Title: BOSNIA: Serbs rally in their thousands in a show of support for accused war criminal Ratko Mladic
  • Date: 1st June 2011
  • Summary: YOUNG BOYS CARRYING BIG BANNER AND PHOTOS OF MLADIC
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA1H0N59PLAJNGHT2DLNLE5BXH8
  • Story Text: Thousands gathered on Tuesday (May 31) for a rally in support of detained war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic in the Serb Republic's capital Banja Luka, a serious affront to Muslims elsewhere in Bosnia, who view the general as a brutal murderer.
    Many came from across the Serb Republic, some in buses filled with his former soldiers bearing his photo.
    One former Bosnian Serb soldier said: "We are here to give support to General Mladic because nobody is guilty until proven guilty."
    Mara Kolundzija, whose son died fin the war, told Reuters: "Ratko Mladic is our hero, my child died under his command and so be it."
    Serbian nationalists wore Chetnik regalia and others carried photographs of Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was arrested three years ago.
    Mladic's arrest has highlighted continued deep ethnic divisions in Bosnia, where he fought to create a separate Serb entity. As a result of the war, a Serb Republic exists as one of two halves under a weak central Bosnian government.
    Batkovic Nemad, another former Bosnian Serb soldier described how: "Mladic is a symbol of freedom for me. Mladic is an invincible Serb hero. He is an immortal for the Serb Republic. We will not give up on him, long live Ratko Mladic."
    Mladic may be sent to The Hague in the next 24 hours, Serbian officials said on Tuesday, after he was allowed to go to his daughter's grave and his grandchildren visited him in prison.
    A court will hear Mladic's appeal against extradition to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of genocide in the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during the 1992-95 Bosnian War.
    The fugitive general was arrested in a Serbian farmhouse last Thursday (May 26) after 16 years on the run.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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