Gavrilo Princip is known around the world as the man whose actions sparked World War I. But for many of his fellow Bosnian Serb countrymen, he is a hero, not a villain. In a ceremony to mark the centenary of the war on Friday, Bosnian Serbs unveiled a two-metre bronze statue of Princip, whose assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28 2014, set world powers on a devastating collision course.
Several hundred people attended the unveiling in Eastern Sarajevo to honour a man viewed by Bosnia Serbs as a nationalist hero who fought for the freedom of Slavic countries. "We have been inspired by Gavrilo Princip... We have, and we will always fight for freedom," said Nebojsa Radmanovic, a Serb member of Bosnia's joint presidency.