Bosniaks in Disarray Over Role in Srebrenica

The first session of Srebrenica's new municipal assembly since the October local elections brought a Serb to power as mayor was broken off on Thursday, when members of the mainly Bosniak [Muslim] Party for Democratic Action, SDA, walked out.

Hamdija Fejzic, president of the Srebrenica branch of the SDA, said on Thursday that the SDA was one of a group of parties that had "signed an agreement to support the former mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic".

Bosniak Durakovic was defeated by Serb candidate Mladen Grujicic in the local elections on October 2 - a shock development for which the SDA was apparently unprepared.

It is the first time in 18 years that Srebrenica, site of the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces, has had a Serbian mayor - and the first time Serbs have won a majority on the local government, holding 12 of the 21 seats. 

Since the president of the assembly is therefore to be a Serb, according to rules, the vice-president should be a Bosniak. 

However, the local SDA branch had not received instructions from the Sarajevo headquarters on what to do, or who their candidate should be. 

A delegation from Sarajevo arrived in Srebrenica Wednesday evening, but could not reach a consensus.

"We asked for a week to try to resolve this issue. That was not accepted by other members of local assembly, which is why we left the session," Fejzic explained.

After the SDA members left, the session continued to verify the mandates of those who stayed.

The session is scheduled to continue on Tuesday, December 6, when they will attempt to verify the outstanding mandates.