Plaque Commemorating Killed Serbs in Srebrenica Sparks Dispute

A dispute has erupted after an organisation called Istocna Alternativa (Eastern Alternative) installed a memorial plaque commemorating Serbs killed "by Muslim hordes" in Srebrenica town centre on Tuesday.

"I have informed the police about this plaque and I expect it will be removed, due to previous decisions that plaques with similar messages will not be installed," Hamdija Fejzic, the Bosniak deputy mayor of Srebrenica, told N1 TV.

The inscription on the plaque says it is "in memory of the innocently killed Serbs of the Podrinje and Birac area in the period 1992-1995, committed by Muslim hordes".

Fejzic told N1 that the plaque was a "clear provocation ahead of July 11", when the anniversary of the 1995 massacres of Bosniak men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces will be commemorated.

Istocna Alternativa is branch of an organisation of the same name from Serbia, and was established in 2012 with its headquarters in Bosnia's Bratunac municipality, near Srebrenica.

Vojin Pavlovic, the president of the organisation, had ambitions to run for the presidency of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, as an independent candidate last year.

But in September 2018 he told media he that he had dropped the plan and noted that his decision will provide "more votes for Zeljka Cvijanovic", who was the candidate for the same position from Milorad Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNDS, the main Bosnian Serb party.

Pavlovic and Mladen Grujicic, the mayor of Srebrenica from the SNSD party, did not respond to BIRN's requests for a comment by the time of publication.

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