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 the final stages of Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
Today's statement said "the report shows without any doubt that in July 1995 huge war crimes took place in the area of Srebrenica."
(AFP/RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albainian Languages Service)
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 war.
Today's statement said "the report shows without any doubt that in July 1995 huge war crimes took place in the area of Srebrenica."
(AFP/RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albainian Languages Service)