TUZLA, Feb 10 (Hina) - The Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and the head of the State Commission for Exchange of War Prisoners, Amor Masovic, on Saturday visited Tuzla and talked with the displaced persons from the Drina River
area.
TUZLA, Feb 10 (Hina) - The Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and
the head of the State Commission for Exchange of War Prisoners,
Amor Masovic, on Saturday visited Tuzla and talked with the
displaced persons from the Drina River area. #L#
Speaking to the displaced in the sports centre "Majdan",
Izetbegovic said that he had talked with a delegation of Srebrenica
women in Sarajevo couple of days ago and stressed: "I was unhappy
because I could not answer their questions. Not because I was not
interested in it, but because there are no results. After the talks
with members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mrs
Rehn and many others, I have to say that the situation is not good.
But that does not mean that we have to give up searching for our
people and for those who committed war crimes. I promise that I
would dedicate my whole life to the search for the truth. We will
search for the truth about the survivors, so that we could find and
rescue them; the truth about the killed, so that we could find
their graves and bury them properly; and the truth about the
criminals, so that we could punish them', Izetbegovic said.
Asked about the reasons of the fall of Srebrenica, the return
of the displaced and the search for the missing persons,
Izetbegovic said: 'We blame the world for what happened to us, and
we have the right to think so. The indifference of the
international community is painful, but we cannot blame the world
for everything', he said, adding that once the book of history was
opened, the truth would perhaps be found out.
Asked whether he could have prevented the fall of Srebrenica,
Izetbegovic said: 'How could I save Srebrenica? I worked as much as
I could, but it was impossible to change certain things'.
Izetbegovic promised he would come back as soon as he learned
something new about the fate of missing Srebrenica residents and
proposed to the displaced to establish a monitoring commission
which would follow the work of the governments of the Republic and
Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tuzla Canton and Tuzla
municipality in helping the displaced.
(hina) rm
101942 MET feb 96