Bosnia marks centenary of WWI spark

Bosnia is set to commemorate 100 years since the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the act that triggered World War One, the BBC reported. 

Cultural and sporting events, including a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic, will mark the occasion in Sarajevo.

Gavrilo Princip, who shot the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, continues to be a divisive figure in Bosnia.

The shots fired by the Bosnian Serb on 28 June 1914 sucked Europe's great powers into four years of warfare.

Bosnia's Serbs, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks are still divided over the role Princip played in bringing tensions to a head in Europe in 1914, with counter-commemorations planned by Bosnian Serbs.

Leaders of Serbia and some Bosnian Serbs are boycotting official events, which they say are designed to incriminate Serbs.

On Friday, Serbs in Bosnia unveiled a statue of Princip in eastern Sarajevo, seen by them as a national hero who ended years of occupation of the Balkans by the Austro-Hungarian empire.

In the eastern town of Visegrad, actors will re-enact the murder of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, and the Belgrade Philharmonic will play music by Vivaldi.

The commemorations in central Sarajevo will take on a completely different tone to those in the east of the city, says the BBC's Guy De Launey.

The Vienna Philharmonic will play a selection harking back to Hapsburg days, including Haydn's Emperor Quartet, he adds.