Ratko Mladic tribute draws thousands in Banja Luka

Several thousand Bosnian Serbs gathered in Banja Luka on Tuesday to pay tribute to Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander who died while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mladic died on Thursday at age 84 in The Hague. He was convicted over crimes during the Bosnian war, including his role in the Srebrenica massacre.

Television images showed people in the main square of Banja Luka, the capital of Bosnia's Serb entity, and marching along the city's principal boulevard with a banner reading: “Commander, thank you for everything.” Some lit smoke flares, waved flags of the Serb entity, lit candles at a monument to Serb soldiers killed during the war and wrote messages in a condolence book.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos on Monday criticised Serbia's plans to bury Mladic with state honours.

The 1992-1995 Bosnian war left around 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million displaced.