Thousands of Serbian nationalists gathered in Belgrade and in Bosnia on Sunday to protest against the arrest of Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic, with many calling him a hero. Supporters of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party and other similar organisations were brought by bus from across the country for an evening rally in the Serbian capital.
"We are here to show these traitors how real Serbs will defend a Serbian hero," said Jovica Pesic, 22, who arrived from the central Serbian town of Uzice.
Mladic, indicted for genocide in the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, was found on Thursday in a village 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Belgrade after 16 years on the run.
Mladic's son Darko said the former general had denied responsibility for the Srebrenica massacre during a visit on Sunday.
"Whatever was done in Srebrenica, he had nothing to do with that. He saved so many women, children and soldiers, his orders were first to evacuate the wounded, then women and children, then captured soldiers," he told reporters. Serbia's war crimes court has ruled that Mladic is fit to travel to the UN war crimes court in The Hague and has served extradition papers.
In Bosnia, about one thousand of his supporters rallied in the eastern town of Kalinovik where Mladic spent his childhood.
A banner hung over the main street, saying: "Welcome to Mladicevo" (Mladic's town). Young and old people waved Serbian flags and carried Mladic posters, many wearing traditional hats with the Serbian coats-of-arms on it.
"He was and has remained a hero for us, the defender of the Serb people, our commander-in-chief who defended us," said a young man, who gave only his first name, Srdjan.
A woman dressed in black lashed out at Serbian President Boris Tadic, whom many Bosnian Serbs regard as a traitor because of Mladic's arrest.
"He should be ashamed," said the woman who did not want to be named.
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