Serbia's prime minister, Aleksandar Vucic, has vowed to ignore security concerns and join former US president Bill Clinton and dignitaries from dozens of other countries in Bosnia today, to mark 20 years since the Srebrenica massacre.
At a time of rising tension in the Balkans, about 50,000 are expected to gather at Srebrenica along with about 90 foreign delegations to commemorate the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb troops.
Many Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosniaks, are furious that Russia this week blocked a United Nations resolution to condemn the massacre as "genocide", in support of Serbian and Bosnian Serb leaders who reject that description of Europe's worst atrocity since the second World War.
‘Terrible crime’
Mr Vucic said he was determined to “represent Serbia in Srebrenica on July 11th . . . Because we think that we Serbs, who are a long-suffering nation, have an obligation to respect other peoples’ victims. Only in this way will they respect ours. I will go to Srebrenica with my head held high . . . and show that we condemn that terrible crime.”
Mr Vucic said he had “never been interested in security assessments”, in disregard of warnings from his interior minister, Nebojsa Stefanovic.
“The situation on the eve of tomorrow’s gathering in Srebrenica is extremely complex. We are expecting a large number of extremists to be there; some are already present and some will arrive in Srebrenica tomorrow,” Mr Stefanovic said yesterday. “The situation is very heated, and in Bosnian media in recent days there have been increasingly hostile comments towards Serbia and prime minister Aleksandar Vucic, whom we have informed about these findings.”
Serb officials banned rallies planned by nationalists and liberals in Belgrade today due to security fears. The remains of 136 recently identified victims of the massacre will be buried today at a cemetery in Potocari, a village near Srebrenica where Bosniaks sought protection from Dutch UN peacekeepers.
Massively outnumbered by Bosnian Serb fighters and deprived of military air support that could have defended the supposed UN "safe haven", the 400 or so Dutch troops abandoned the Bosniaks to the marauding forces of Ratko Mladic.
Summary executions and mass burials took place; Mladic and his wartime political ally, Radovan Karadzic are being tried for genocide in The Hague.
Ireland will be represented at Srebrenica by its Ambassador to Bosnia, Patrick Kelly.
