"By respecting victims from other ethnic groups and by understanding other people's misfortune, we find the strength for reconciliation without which a better life in the Balkans would not be possible," Tadic said in a statement on the 12th anniversary of atrocities committed by Bosnian Serb forces in the predominantly Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia in July 1995.
"Serbia is dedicated to cooperating with the Hague tribunal and all the war crimes indictees must be located, arrested and transferred to The Hague. This is not just our international obligation, we owe that first of all to ourselves, but also to our neighbours," the Serbian president said, adding that the war crimes issue still weighed heavy on relations among the countries in the region and that war crimes prosecution and the building of a stable and prosperous region integrated with the European Union could ensure a better future for all.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democratic Party of Cedomir Jovanovic again urged the Serbian government to arrest and hand over Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic and other fugitives wanted by the Hague tribunal.
At a conference commemorating the Srebrenica massacre in the southern city of Nis, Aleksandra Milenov of the Hague tribunal's Registry said that the Serbian leadership was showing no sympathy for the Srebrenica victims.
"I'm sorry that on the part of the Serbian leadership we cannot see compassion and a sincere desire to give the Srebrenica victims and their families some sort of satisfaction," Milenov said, adding that the Serbian leadership spoke of cooperation with the Hague tribunal only in the context of Serbia's ambitions to join the European Union and that its cooperation was always formulated as "an economic category."