Ratko Mladic death sparks public gatherings and memorials across Republika Srpska

The demonstrations took place in a municipality where thousands of Bosniaks were expelled and numerous crimes were committed by Serb forces in 1992, and where a large proportion of victims from the Srebrenica genocide were later buried in mass graves.

Similar scenes unfolded in Visegrad, where residents gathered on the Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic Bridge to ignite torches and fireworks, as well as in East Sarajevo and other towns across the entity where citizens lit candles and memorial services were held in churches.

Mladic passed away in the UN detention unit in The Hague, as reported by Serbian media outlets. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals previously sentenced him to life imprisonment for genocide in Srebrenica, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, other inhumane acts, terrorization of the population of Sarajevo, and taking United Nations peacekeepers hostage.

The judicial process established his responsibility for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide resulting in the killing of over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, the prolonged siege of Sarajevo, and forced displacement operations during the Bosnian war. As one of the most powerful military leaders of Bosnian Serbs, Mladic evaded capture for nearly sixteen years before being arrested on May 26, 2011, in the village of Lazarevo near Zrenjanin in Serbia.