(ANSA) - TRIESTE - A statue of Gavrilo Princip, the man who sparked WW1, by assassinating in Sarajevo the heir to the Habsburg throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia, was solemnly inaugurated Sunday in Belgrade in the presence of Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic.

''Today we are not afraid of the truth'', Nikolic said, ''Princip was a hero, a symbol of freedom, murderer of tyrants and standard-bearer of the liberation of the European countries from slavery''.

Princip's legacy still splits the Balkans, a hundred years after 28 June 1914, the day of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination. In Serbia and among the Serbs of Bosnia, the attacker is still generally seen as a freedom fighter, while among the Croats and Muslims, who considered the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a growth opportunity, he is deemed to be a Serbian nationalist, engaged in a battle for Serbian hegemony.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, along with hundreds of people residing in Belgrade, attended the ceremony held in the centre of the Serbian capital. (ANSA).