Naser Oric Arrest Threatens Srebrenica Anniversary

The committee organising the 20th anniversary commemoration of the 1995 massacres said on Tuesday that it will postpone the planned July 11 ceremony until Oric, the wartime Bosnian Army commander in Srebrenica, is released from detention in Switzerland.

The head of the commemoration's organising committee, Srebrenica mayor Camil Durakovic, told media that the situation had "escalated significantly" after Oric was arrested on June 10 in Switzerland on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia.

Durakovic, who was with Oric when he was arrested in Switzerland, said that the organising committee has decided to postpone the commemoration if the ex-commander is not released by the end of June.

He said that security could not be guaranteed at the commemoration because there were "50,000 people who intend to come to Srebrenica on July 11 who will be very emotional".

Many Srebrenica survivors view Oric as a heroic figure who was "the commander of the defence of the surviving victims of genocide", he added.

Oric is accused by Serbia of committing war crimes including killings and looting against Bosnian Serb civilians in 1992 in the village of Zalazje near Srebrenica. The crimes allegedly include.

The alleged crimes took place before the 1995 attack by the Bosnian Serb army on Srebrenica, when more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in massacres later defined as genocide by international and domestic courts.

Oric was acquitted of war crimes against Serbs in the Srebrenica area by the Hague Tribunal in 2008, when the court ruled that he did not have control over the Bosnian Army which committed the crime.

His arrest has sparked tensions between Sarajevo and Belgrade.

The office of the Bosniak...