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| Protesters against the mural dedicated to Mladic in Belgrade |
The "Mural must be torn down" protest, held several hundred meters away from the mural dedicated to Mladic, is one of many rallies organized by citizens and NGOs after police blocked activists who wanted to paint the mural on International Anti-Fascism Day, on November 9th.
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| A protester with placards against Mladic mural in Belgrade |
Protest organizers said it was time for the Serbian state to stop denying the Srebrenica genocide, for which Ratko Mladic, as Republika Srpska Army general, was sentenced to life in prison in The Hague. The protesters also demanded that Serbia change its stance on war crimes, "erect monuments to victims, not criminals."
Although it was warned that the participants in the protest, after the speeches, would head to Njegosheva Street, where Ratko Mladic's mural is, this plan was abandoned for security reasons.
"There is a lot of police, there are a lot of right-wingers. We are good people and we do not want any incidents to happen," human rights activist Aida Corovic told to media.
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| Ratko Mladic i pikturuar në murë në Beograd |
On November 9, Corovic was arrested for throwing eggs on the mural of Ratko Mladic, convicted of war crimes and genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina by The Hague tribunal.
During the protest, as reported by journalists of Radio Free Europe, the police separated the right-wingers from the protesters.
Right-wing supporters chanted messages of support for Mladic and insulted protesters for demanding the removal of the mural. Meanwhile, pro-protesters, on the other hand, have called the right "fascists".
The mural with Mladic's portrait has been standing on the facade of a building at the intersection of Njegosheva and Aleksa Nenadovic streets for four months.
An unknown author painted the mural in late July this year, a month after a court in The Hague upheld Ratko Mladic's life sentence on June 8th. The explanation of the police for stopping the November 9 rally, in which the mural was to be painted, was that there was a risk of mutual physical conflict (supporters and opponents of the announced rally) and disturbance of public order and tranquility.