SARAJEVO:
Tensions rose on Tuesday in a stand-off between Bosnian police and protesters
after the arrest of the leader of a movement demonstrating over the unresolved
death of his student son in the city of Banja Luka. Hundreds of people gathered
to protest against the arrest of their leader Davor Dragicevic, defying police
forces deployed around central square in Banja Luka, the capital of Serb-run
Bosnian entity Republika Srpska (RS).

Dragicevic, 49,
whose son David died in March, "was arrested after having failed to
respond to a police summons," police spokeswoman Marija Markanovic told
reporters. For months, Dragicevic and his ex-wife have accused the authorities
in the Bosnian Serb-run region of "killing" their son, a charge
officials have denied. The body of the 21-year-old technology student was found
in a stream in March.  Police called his
death an accident, but his family suspected foul play, sparking a wave of
protests not seen in Bosnia since 2014. A prosecutor later qualified the death
as murder.

Nightly meetings

The group
"Justice for David", which has been meeting every evening in Banja
Luka's central square for nine months now, last week gathered outside the
parliament of Republika Srpska without approval by the authorities. Some 20
protesters, including Dragicevic, were accused by a prosecutor of
"threatening the security" of political officials.

Dragicevic was
summoned for questioning but refused to report to the police station, the
police spokeswoman said. His ex-wife, David's mother Suzana Radanovic, and
several other group members were also arrested, including opposition party
leader Branislav Borenovic and his party's MP Drasko Stanivukovic. They were
all accused of "violating public order," police said. Radanovic was
released later on Tuesday and joined the protesters.

According to
local media, the demonstrators opposed police removing a "sanctuary"
at what has become known as "David's Square" where they have been
gathering, bringing flowers and lighting candles every evening.  Police then forced several hundred protesters
from the place as well as from a park where they had moved. The European Union
delegation in Bosnia in a statement expressed "deep concern" and
"asked the RS Ministry of Interior for an immediate explanation of the
ongoing arrests of different persons associated with the

'Justice for
David' movement."

Hundreds of
protesters rallied in the evening in Bosnian capital Sarajevo and blocked main
boulevard in support of the group in Banja Luka, an AFP journalist reported.
Protests "for David" have gradually turned into demonstrations
against the rule of Milorad Dodik, a Bosnian Serb strongman whose party won an
October election in Republika Srpska. Since the end of the 1992-1995 war,
Bosnia has been composed of two entities -- Serb-run Republika Srpska and the
Muslim-Croat Federation -- united by a loose central government. - AFP