Some celebrate a murder, others mourn a birth: On this day Đinđić was killed, Dodik and Mladić were born

On this day, March 12, 2003, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Serbia and leader of the Democratic Party, Dr. Zoran Đinđić, was killed. He was assassinated at the entrance to the Serbian Government building. He is remembered as the leader who managed to remove Slobodan Milošević from power, whose policies in the 1990s claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, and Serbia itself, reports the Patria agency.

The assassination of Đinđić, who was of Bosnian origin, was deemed a political murder. Several individuals believed to have participated in the assassination of Đinđić were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms, but the masterminds were never discovered, or at least their names were not publicly revealed.

Interestingly, on the same day Đinđić was killed, March 12, Milorad Dodik and Ratko Mladić celebrate their birthdays. Both will be recorded in black letters in the history of the Serbian people. Dodik has completely devastated the economy of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska, which he has governed for over ten years, while Mladić, the former general of the Army of Republika Srpska, is on trial before the International Court in The Hague for the most horrific crimes against Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The final verdict for Mladić will be delivered by the end of this year.

Analysts assess that both Dodik and Mladić are a major stain on the Serbian people, one from the war period, the other from the peace period.

Political analyst from Banja Luka, Srđan Puhalo, said that some Serbs celebrate March 12 because of the murder, while others mourn because of the births, reports Patria.