Hague Prosecutor Criticises Serbian Politicians for Genocide Denial

The chief prosecutor at the UN-backed Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, Serge Brammertz, told the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday that comments by two Serbian politicians on last week's 24th anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide were intolerable.

"It cannot be tolerated that just last week a government minister called the Srebrenica genocide false while a member of parliament congratulated Ratko Mladic for the genocide which, he said, was a brilliant military operation," Brammertz said during the presentation of his biannual report to the Security Council.

Brammertz said he had addressed the issue of genocide denial and the glorification of war crimes convicts in Serbia for the first time five years ago, but that now the problem had worsened.

MP Vladimir Djukanovic from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party congratulated Ratko Mladic on July 10, the day before the annual commemoration of the massacres of more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Mladic.

"I want to congratulate the Serbian people on the day of the liberation of Srebrenica. Thanks to General Ratko Mladic on the brilliantly conducted military operation," Djukanovic wrote on Twitter.

Mladic was convicted of genocide and other crimes by the Hague court under a first-instance verdict. He is now appealing.

Two days after the comments by Djukanovic, Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin said that "the Serbian people survived genocide rather than committed it, and way bigger nations cannot say that for themselves".

Vulin made his comments in reaction to a statement by Germany's ambassador to Belgrade, Thomas Schieb, who said that Serbia should accept that the mass killings of Bosniaks from...