MOSTAR, Sept 9 (Hina) - Bosnian Serb entity Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic said on Monday his government would not take a position regarding a report on war crimes committed in Srebrenica, and that this issue should be debated openly
after Bosnia's Oct. 5 election.
MOSTAR, Sept 9 (Hina) - Bosnian Serb entity Prime Minister Mladen
Ivanic said on Monday his government would not take a position
regarding a report on war crimes committed in Srebrenica, and that
this issue should be debated openly after Bosnia's Oct. 5 election.
#L#
Last week the Republika Srpska government's office for relations
with the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague issued a study
diminishing the summer 1995 massacre committed by Bosnian Serb
troops against the Muslim population of Srebrenica, a UN safe haven
at the time. The study claims that 2,000 instead of 8,000 Muslims
were killed.
Numerous international organisations, including the High
Representative for Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, lambasted the
study, stating it was untrue and that Srebrenica constituted the
biggest crime Europe witnessed after World War Two.
"We are aware that a crime took place in Srebrenica," PM Ivanic said
today, but noted that the study was not his government's official
stand.
"The truth about Srebrenica should be told by historians and not by
politicians," Ivanic maintained. He said the Srebrenica tragedy
should not be used for daily politics or discussed ahead of an
election.
(hina) ha