FROM THE MEDIA

Serbia must distance itself from war criminals, president says

Released : Jul 10, 2005 10:36 AM

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro-Serbia must distance itself from criminals who committed atrocities during the Balkan wars, the president said Sunday on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.

Boris Tadic, the first Serbian leader to attend a commemoration ceremony in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, said in a statement that Serbia's future depends on its attitude toward war crimes committed in its name. Bosnia Serb troops killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys after they overran the U.N. safe area in July 1995.

"We didn't back those crimes," he said, referring to Serbia's anti-war movement during the rule of former President Slobodan Milosevic. "We must show distance between the citizens and the criminals. Serbia's future depends on that."

Tadic has faced criticism from the Serbia's hard-line nationalists for his decision to attend the Srebrenica ceremonies on Monday.

The massacre has become the symbol of the brutality of Bosnia's 1992-95 war, prompting the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to charge the former Serbian and Bosnian Serb leaders with genocide for their role in it.

Milosevic is among those being tried in connection with Srebrenica before the Hague court.

However, the alleged masterminds of the slaughter, former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, remain at large 10 years after their indictments by the Netherlands-based court.

In Serbia, many nationalists consider Karadzic and Mladic as heroes and reject the possibility that the Serb troops committed war crimes. On Saturday, more than 5,000 people, including the head of the Christian Orthodox church, attended a nationalist gathering here, which declared that the Serbs were the biggest victims of the Yugoslav conflicts.

Tadic said in his statement that he will go to Srebrenica "to pay my respects to the innocent victims of the crime that took place there."

"I am going there to show Serbia's attitude toward war crimes," he said. "It takes courage and strength to condemn a crime committed in our name against another nation."

"That is why I will go to Srebrenica," he said.