Police officers have been deployed in front of the mural of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic in central Belgrade which was scheduled to be removed last week.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) called for the removal of the mural painted on the side of an apartment building last week but the gathering was banned by the police citing possible clashes between Mladic supporters and YIHR activists.
An N1 reporter saw police officers on both sides of the street along with two police vans. An eyewitness said that the police officers were checking the ID of anyone who stopped by the mural. She added that she stopped to talk to a neighbour and was approached by a police officer who wrote up her personal details. The woman said that she saw police officers stopping two young men in front of the mural.
Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment before the Hague Tribunal for genocide in the east-Bosnian town of Srebrenica and crimes against humanity against non-Serbs during the 1992-1995 war in the country.