"Regardless of what happened to me today, my hand remains extended to the Bosniak people and I will continue with that policy and be always ready for us to solve and overcome problems," Vucic told reporters after an extraordinary government session held after the incident in Srebrenica.
He said that the attack on him and the Serbian delegation at the Potocari memorial complex in Srebrenica was organised and that the first hate messages from the crowd were shouted by fans of a Serbian sports club, but he did not say which one.
"It was not an incident, it was an organised attack. First a group of supporters of a soccer club from Serbia started shouting insults, after which the crowd started shouting 'Allahu akbar', 'Kill Vucic', 'Kill the Chetnik'... At first I didn't want to hide and I wanted to ask them why they were doing it if I had come and offered my hand in reconciliation, but the scuffle had already begun and the security had to react," said Vucic.
He confirmed having been hit in the lip and having lost his glasses in the scuffle.
He said that the people who had caused the incident were not aware that "they have insulted the victims' mothers and families because now more is spoken about the fools who wanted to lynch someone than about paying tribute to the victims."
Vucic repeated his and his government's position that their hand remained extended to the Bosniak people to achieve reconciliation and co-existence.
Nonetheless, Serbia refuses to call the murder of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica genocide even though it was described as such by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
On Wednesday, Russia vetoed in the UN Security Council the adoption of a resolution on Srebrenica that was to have condemned that crime as genocide, and the European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution strongly condemning the genocide in Srebrenica and criticising the negation and downplaying of that atrocity.
Vucic urged Serbian citizens and other fellow Serbs not to demonstrate hate towards Bosniaks despite the incident.
"There are fools in every nation, we have our own share of them too... The attack was well organised and prepared, there were many political messages, but I am happy they did not come from the victims' families," said Vucic.
"No one has the right after what happened today to do what they like... Bosniak neighbours and friends, I offer my hand once again. And do not worry about the fools who did this today, there are people like that everywhere," Vucic said, thanking Srebrenica Mayor Camil Durakovic for apologising after the attack.
As for the Bosniak member of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, who in recent days sent Vucic strongly-worded messages in the context of the arrest of Naser Oric, the wartime commander of Srebrenica defence, and preparations for the UN resolution on Srebrenica, Vucic said that "nothing bad will ever happen to him in Serbia" and that he did not wish to bring him into connection with the attack at Potocari.
"I don't want to say anything now. I did not organise a lynching campaign against another country and people... when I am able to speak peacefully and tolerantly, I will phone him (Izetbegovic) and we will talk."