Pale, Bosnia-Hercegovina - Several thousand Bosnian Serbs joined in one-hour processions organised throughout the Serb-run entity at noon on Saturday in support of the arrested genocide suspect Radovan Karadzic.
The peaceful walks and lighting of candles were organised by the nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS) founded by wartime leader Karadzic.
Around 2 000 people gathered in Pale, his stronghold during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war and where his family lives, headed by the SDS chief Mladen Bosic.
The Karadzic family could not be seen in the procession which stopped in front of the church where people lit candles in sign of prayers for Karadzic.
Supporters carried pictures of Karadzic reading "Don't touch," "We are with you," "Serb hero," and "The power of prayer," while some wore Tee-shirts with pictures of him and his wartime military chief Ratko Mladic.
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They also waved flags of the entity of Republika Srpska and the SDS party.
In the administrative centre of Banja Luka around a thousand people took part in the procession to the city church.
Although the party urged the Orthodox Church to say masses for his health, its officials refused.
However, Bishop Grigorije of the southern Hercegovina region allowed priests to celebrate masses for Karadzic in Trebinje and other towns.
Karadzic, and Mladic who is still at large, remain heroes for many nationalist Serbs despite heavy charges against them.
Karadzic, on the run for more than a decade, was arrested by Serbian security forces in Belgrade on Monday and is expected to be transferred to the UN war crimes court in The Hague within days.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicted Karadzic for war crimes and genocide near the end of Bosnia's war.
The charges are mainly related to two of Europe's worst atrocities since World War II, the 44-month siege of Sarajevo which killed more than 10 000 people and the Srebrenica massacre of some 8 000 Muslim males.
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