Bosnian Serbs slam EU parliament move to commemorate Srebrenica genocide

(BANJA LUKA) - Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik on Friday branded as incorrect and uncceptable a decision by the European Parliament to proclaim July 11 a day of commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide.

"The European Parliament was not correct in this case. For us (Serbs) marking in that way only that event and giving importance to that event only is unacceptable," Dodik was quoted by the local SRNA news agency as saying.

"An answer on how to mark overall sufferings in Bosnia-Hercegovina should have been found rather than singling out one event which is a subject of different political interpretations," Dodik said.

The Bosnian Serb leader added that he was not denying that there had been victims in Srebrenica but said Bosnia's 1992-1995 war had claimed Serb victims too, SRNA said.

Members of the European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution on Srebrenica recognising July 11 as the "day of commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide".

They called on the European Union's executive Commission and members countries to support the parliament's move "all over the EU".

The resolution also called on all Balkans countries to do the same.

Bosnian Serb forces overran the eastern town of Srebrenica on July 11, 1995.

After the fall of the UN-protected Muslim enclave they killed around 8,000 Muslim men and boys throwing their bodies into mass graves.

The Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II, has been termed a genocide by the International Court of Justice and the UN war crimes tribunal, both based in The Hague.

Bosnia's inter-ethnic war killed some 100,000 people.