A mural dedicated to convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic, former Bosnian Serb military leader, was painted on a building in Banja Luka, administrative centre of Bosnia's Serb-majority region Republika Srpska. Its author remains unknown.

A message next to the Mladic's image reads “ the unification has started and cannot be stopped anymore.”

The building where the mural appeared is situated in the vicinity of the seat of the Republika Srpska government.

Spokesperson for the Banja Luka Police Department, Danijela Mucibabic, told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that the police had no information about the mural.

Over the recent years, murals to Mladic have been painted in several cities across the entity – in Foca and Kalinovik, in the east, Gacko and Nevesinje, in the south, Gradiska in the northwest.

Former international peace envoy Valentin Inzko imposed the Bosnia's Criminal Code earlier this year, introducing the penalties of five years in prison for anyone who publicly approves, denies, diminishes or attempts to justify a crime of genocide, a crime against humanity or a war crime as well as the penalties for glorifying war criminals.

Following this decision, Republika Srpska entity parliament passed in urgent procedure a law rejecting the international envoy's amendments.

Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life in prison by the UN tribunal for the Srebrenica genocide, persecution, crimes against humanity, extermination and other war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.