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10 November 2004 -- Bosnian Serb authorities today apologized for the first time to relatives of around 8,000 Muslims killed by Serbian forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. A statement posted on the government's official web page said "the government of Republika Srpska sympathizes with the pain of relatives of the Srebrenica victims and expresses sincere regrets and apologies over the tragedy which has happened to them." The Bosnian Serb government accepted last month a local report by a special investigative commission acknowledging that almost 8,000 Muslims were killed in the massacre, in...

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina (AFP) - Bosnian Serb authorities apologized for the first time to relatives of around 8,000 Muslims killed by Serb forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II. "The government of Republika Srpska sympathizes with the pain of relatives of the Srebrenica victims and expresses sincere regrets and apologies over the tragedy which has happened to them," a government statement said. The Bosnian Serb government accepted last month a local report by a special investigative commission acknowledging that almost 8,000 Muslims were killed in the massacre, in the final stages of Bosnia's 1992-95...

A SERB commission's final report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre acknowledged that the mass murder of 7800 Muslim men and boys was planned, an international official said today. The report on the worst massacre of civilians since World War II was presented to the Bosnian Serb Government last month, but has not yet been made public. "The report itself admits and provides details of the plan and deliberate liquidation of thousands of Bosniaks by the Bosnian Serb forces," said Bernard Fassier, the deputy to Bosnia's top international administrator, Paddy Ashdown. Although Bosnian Serbs have long been blamed for the massacre,...

Next July it will be ten years since the most odious crime was committed on European soil since the depravities of the German Nazis. The 1995 massacre at Srebrenica of captured Bosnian men and boys by Serb militias was an outrage which shocked the world. Everyone wanted to know how the UN Dutch peacekeepers, who were supposed to be guarding the town as a safe haven for its citizens and the Muslims who had fled their homes in the region, could have been persuaded to abandon the helpless people they had been ordered to protect. The Dutch have grappled with...

Tuesday, 05 October 2004 Bosnia: Muslim Commander Charged In Pre-Srebrenica Atrocities By Don Hill When Bosnian Serb militias massacred more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995, they imprinted the name of the town of their crime -- Srebrenica -- on the world's consciousness. The tragedy came to be known, in the words of U.S. writer George Will, as "Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War." Less known, however, was an earlier campaign by Bosnian Muslims against their Serb neighbors. This week, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia starts the war crimes trial of Naser Oric....

THE HAGUE, September 24 (FENA/Hina) – The trial of former commander of defence in Srebrenica Naser Oric before the Hague Tribunal will start on October 6 and is expected to last approximately one year, spokesperson for the ICTY said on Thursday. Oric (37) is charged with war crimes committed by Bosniak forces against Serbs in the broader Srebrenica area in 1992 and 1993. The indictment states that between May 1992 and March 1993 RBiH Army forces under his command carried out various operations against the Bosnian Serb Army, which held Muslim enclaves in East Bosnia in encirclement. In those operations...

Radovan Karadzic, the psychiatrist who became the most wanted war criminal"It's better for them to kill me" YES, IT WAS AN unusual picture of a man who is generally seen as The Most Wanted Man in the world. Radovan Karadzic, the former psychiatrist, the former leader of the Bosnian-Serbian party SDS, the former president of the Bosnian-Serbs. Believed to be the architect of ethnic cleansing and atrocities which we only know from the books and films (I mean, I wasn't born yet) about World War 2, and now sitting on a couch with his 3-months young grandson Nebosha sleeping...

Srebrenica atrocity commemorated | 22:29 July 11 | B92 SREBRENICA -- Sunday – In the Memorial Center in Potocari, near Srebrenica, a funeral service was held for 338 identified individuals found in a mass grave in Srebrenica, that were killed in July 1995. Among the identified was also one female and 16 children. The funeral services marked the seven year anniversary of the massacre of more than 7,000 people in Srebrenica in the summer of 1995, during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Representing the Bosnia0Herzegovina Executive Council, Sulejman Tihic spoke of the atrocity and its political ramifications, and of punishment for...

11:41 SREBRENICA , June 30 (Tanjug) - The 12th anniversary of the massacre of Serb civilians in Brezane, near Srebrenica, who were killed in their homes by the Muslim army, was marked on Wednesday by laying wreaths and holding a memorial service. At dawn of June 30, 1992, the muslim units from Srebrenica, under the command of Naser Oric, now in the Hague ICTY penetentiary, surrounded the village of Brezane and killed 31 civilian, mostly women, children and elderly.

SURVIVORS of Bosnia's wartime massacre in Srebrenica will sue the Netherlands next month for failing to prevent the worst European atrocity since the World War II, Bosnian national television reported today. "We will take legal action against the Netherlands on July 1," the televison quoted a member of the survivors' association, Sabahta Fejzic, as saying. The complaint would be made before a Dutch court, the TV said. More than 7000 Muslim men and boys were summarily executed in July 1995 after Bosnian Serb troops overran Srebrenica, a Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia that had been declared a United Nations "safe...

While four police directed traffic, about 20 officials and journalists peered over a rusty guardrail on the side of the two-lane road that winds towards Bratunac, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Below, half a dozen men were digging in the muddy ground of the roadside ravine with pickaxes and spades. Workers said they expect to find about 15 bodies here in the reddish mud -- bodies of civilians killed during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which Bosnian Serb forces killed up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys after over-running what had been a UN-declared "safe area". This grave is...

| SOUTHEAST EUROPE AND BALKANS | BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Bosnian Serbs Admit For The First Time Srebrenica Massacre 11 June 2004 | 19:12 | AFP Bosnian Serbs admitted for the first time on Friday that their forces had killed several thousand Muslims in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, saying that the perpetrators had tried to cover up the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. A report by a Bosnian Serb government commission said that it has "established that during the 10-19 July 1995 period several thousand Bosniaks (Muslims) were liquidated in a way which represents grave violations of international...

Bosnian Serbs Admit for First Time Security Forces Massacred Thousands of Muslims During War Samir Krilic/Associated Press Jun 11, 2004 SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Bosnian Serb officials have acknowledged for the first time that their security forces carried out the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, according to an investigative report Friday. An official commission examining Europe's worst massacre since World War II "established participation of (Bosnian Serb) military and police units, including special (police) units" in the deaths, international administration spokesman Vedran Persic told The Associated Press, quoting from the commission's report. During the height of the...

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Bosnian Serb authorities offered details of six previously undisclosed mass graves in the town of Srebrenica on Friday, their first step in cooperating with a commission investigating the worst civilian massacre in Europe since World War II. Bosnian Serb military and police officials submitted details of the graves to the chairman of the commission studying the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995. The Muslims were massacred when Serbs overran the eastern Bosnian enclave during the 3 1/2-year war in the former Yugoslav province. "The mass graves are located in the wider Srebrenica...

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) suspended about $26 million in assistance to Serbia-Montenegro on Wednesday for its refusal to hand over suspects to the U.N. war crimes tribunal at the Hague. The most prominent suspect still at large is former Bosnian Serb army commander Gen. Ratko Mladic. He was accused by the U.N. court of genocide in the deaths of about 8,000 men and boys in the Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995. Mladic is among 16 suspects who have not been turned over to the tribunal and who are believed to...

A former commander of the UN forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has told the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague that, having witnessed the level of hatred in the area of Srebrenica in March 1993, he warned Slobodan Milosevic of a possible "terrible tragedy" there. Using the power he had over the Bosnian Serb leaders at the time, the former Yugoslav President prevented a likely massacre in May of that year, retired French General Philippe Morillon testified Thursday (12 February) at Milosevic's war crimes trial. Milosevic faces 66 counts of war crimes under three separate indictments for his...

13:19 KRAVICA , Jan 7 (Tanjug) - A memorial service was held in the Orthodox church in Kravica, near Bratunac, on Wednesday on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of a great massacre of local Serbs Bosniacs had killed in this local district and its neighbouring villages during the war. At the dawn of January 7, 1993, Bosniac forces from Srebrenica, under the command of Naser Oric, now prisoner of The Hague tribunal, invaded the village of Kravica and killed and massacred 46 local Serb civilias, mostly women, children and old people, at their thresholds.

<p>An outgoing deputy prime minister, Nebojsa Covic, said voters had punished the reformist government for failing to raise living standards.</p> <p>"Living standards." There’s always an excuse for hatred, it seems: "We supported Hitler because the economy was bad," or "We didn’t oppose Stalin because he kept order." The behavior of many Serbians over the last decade sickens me. Remember the TV images of Serbian youth holding rock concerts in support of their soldiers’ genocidal activities in Kosovo? Just to set the record straight, I’ll once again remind people of the blood that some (not all) Serbians have on their hands.</p>

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina - The Bosnian Serb republic, facing international pressure to admit atrocities committed during the 1990s, has appointed a commission to investigate Europe's worst massacre since World War II The government of Bosnia's Serb-run republic said Friday it has appointed a seven-member team to review the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, a Muslim enclave in eastern Bosnia overrun by Serbs in 1995 "The commission's main task is to establish the complete truth about the events in and around Srebrenica ... in order to achieve permanent peace and trust in Bosnia," the government...

THE HAGUE -- Tuesday - A former Bosnian Serb army commander was jailed for 17 years by The Hague war crimes tribunal on Wednesday after confessing to his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys. Dragan Obrenovic, one of two former commanders to admit his role in the Europe's worst massacre since World War Two in a plea agreement in May, pleaded guilty at the UN court to one count of crimes against humanity the same month. "The trial chamber hereby sentences you to a period of 17 years' imprisonment," presiding judge Liu...