BELGRADE, July 11. /TASS/. Serbia has demanded from Bosnia and Herzegovina to immediately investigate into an attack on its Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic in Srebrenica and punish those guilty. A note of protest was handed to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ambassador Igor Crnadak on Saturday.
"Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has shown by his presence the readiness to bow his head to Srebrenica victims and stepped forward to improve relations both with the region and the whole country," the note said. "We expect public condemnation from officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina of Serbia’s prime minister’s attempted assassination."
At the same time, the foreign ministry said that Crnadak "vehemently condemned the attack" on Vucic.
Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said in a statement that an incident in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica is an attack against Serbia.
"It is an attack not only against Vucic but against all of Serbia and its policy of peace and regional cooperation," he said.
On Saturday, reports were coming that when Vucic was laying flowers at the Potochari memorial, a chanting Allahu Akbar crowd started hurling stones and bottles filled with water at the Serbian prime minister. A stone hit his head breaking eyeglasses.
The eyewitnesses said that the Serbian delegation had to make a quick retreat to the cars and left the memorial.
Dozens of thousands of people have taken part in the commemorative events. Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Slovenian President Borut Pahor and other high-ranking officials and diplomats had arrived to commemorate the 20th anniversary since 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed.
Media said that in the run-up to his trip to Srebrenica, Serbia’s prime minister said: "Serbia clearly and unequivocally condemns horrible crimes committed in Srebrenica 20 years ago."
"Twenty years have passed since these gruesome crimes in Srebrenica were committed and no words can be found to express the sorrow and grief over the dead," Vucic said. "It is our common future and it must not be sacrificed because of personal or ethnic egotism."
On July 11, 1995 the Bosnian Serbs’ forces killed around 8,000 boys and men of the Muslim enclave. Serbia without denying the crime says that it was made in response to deliberate slaughters of Serbs by Islamic extremists.
At least 100,000 people were killed in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, with the Srebrenica massacre recognised as the most tragic moment of the conflict.
Earlier this week, Russia vetoed the British-proposed draft resolution on Srebrenica at the UN Security Council. Ten countries voted for the draft. Another four (Angola, Venezuela, China and Nigeria) abstained from voting. The draft resolution characterized the murder of about 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica as genocide and stressed that the negation of that fact hindered the process of reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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