BOSNIAKS BOYCOTTED, SERBS HONOURED VICTIMS FROM THEIR OWN PEOPLE

SREBENICA, JULY 10 /SRNA/ - Serb councillors today paid tribute to victims from the Serb people at the invitation of Deputy Speaker of the Srebrenica Municipal Assembly Radomir Pavlović, as Bosniak councillors have been obstructing the paying of tribute to all victims for several years and do not attend these sessions.

"Today, we paid tribute to the victims from our people, the Serb people. We do not accept the imposition of collective responsibility or the labelling of the Serb people as genocidal, which the Bosniak side is attempting by disregarding the enormous Serb suffering in the Srebrenica municipality from 1992 to 1995," Pavlović said. He recalled that 19 years ago they jointly decided that July 10 would be the day to commemorate the suffering of all innocent residents of Srebrenica and pay tribute to all victims, but that the Bosniak side has been boycotting it for several years. Pavlović pointed to the continuity of Serb suffering in the three wars in BiH during the 20th century and said that the current Bosniak councillors in the Srebrenica municipal assembly obstruct every discussion and belittle Serb victims because they have accepted the Western narrative about the nature of the war in BiH, without being interested in the actual truth. "Serb victims and mass graves from World War II in this area were never recorded; instead, they were systematically concealed, and we will not allow that to happen again after the recent war," Pavlović said. He said that international and BiH justice systems had discriminated against Serb victims because they had failed to punish the perpetrators of crimes, adding that this creates distrust among the Serb people, who no longer have confidence in the judiciary or in BiH as a common state. The tribute to the victims was paid as part of the commemoration marking 34 years since the suffering of Serbs; the tribute was also supposed to be paid to Bosniak victims marking 31 years since their suffering. However, this was not done because Bosniak councillors did not attend the session. Aware of the great human suffering in the Srebrenica municipality, councillors concluded 19 years ago that members of the Bosniak, Serb and other peoples had suffered in this municipality. Since then, a commemorative session of the local assembly has been held every year on July 10, and tribute has been paid to all innocent Srebrenica victims. At the time this decision was adopted, the parliamentary majority consisted of Bosniak councillors. Almost all of them had been participants in the war, and based on their personal experiences and knowledge, they assessed that members of both the Serb and Bosniak peoples of Srebrenica had suffered. However, the current Bosniak councillors are boycotting the commemoration, even though they did not participate in the war and do not know the truth about the events during the war years in the territory of this municipality. Mayor Miloš Vučić said that the commemorative session of the Srebrenica Municipal Assembly was conceived as a day to remember and pay tribute to all innocent victims from all peoples who lost their lives from 1992 to 1995. He stressed that when it comes to Bosniak victims, justice was meted out through court verdicts, while no one had been held accountable for crimes against Serbs, adding that this is painful and will never be acceptable to the Serb people. "We want consensus in this municipality and to pay tribute with dignity to all innocent victims, to build peace and create better living conditions and prospects for future generations," Vučić said. He also pointed out that Srebrenica has been in the focus of the world's attention in recent days because of the commemoration of the anniversary of suffering, while no one is concerned about how people live in this town or about people's needs.