Hundreds of Bosnian Serbs gather to honor former commander Ratko Mladić

Hundreds of Bosnian Serbs assembled in the town of Banja Luka on Saturday to lay flowers and observe a moment of silence in memory of former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladić. The gathering, organized by local veteran groups, took place near the site of a former military headquarters and featured speeches that highlighted Mladić’s role in the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Participants carried Serbian flags and sang patriotic songs, while some observers recorded the event for social media platforms.

Mladić, who was convicted in 2017 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, has been serving a life sentence in a Dutch prison. The tribute has drawn criticism from Bosnian officials and international human‑rights organizations, who warn that public commemorations of the convicted war criminal could fuel ethnic tensions in the region. Local authorities have not reported any incidents of violence or arrests related to the gathering, and the event concluded without disruption.