SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — A crowd of furious Bosnian Muslims jumped over fences and attacked Serbia’s prime minister with stones and water bottles on Saturday, marring the 20th anniversary commemorations of the Srebrenica massacre.
Aleksandar Vucic, a former ultranationalist during the Balkan wars but who is now a moderate with a pro-Western stance, escaped serious injury. He said he was hit in the face with a rock as the crowds chanted “Kill, kill” and “Allahu akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great.”
The scenes overshadowed what was supposed to be a day of reflection and remembrance for the 8,000 Muslim men and boys slaughtered at the hands of Serb forces in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Two U.N. courts ruled that the killings constituted genocide.
Vucic is among the most hated individuals for Bosnian Muslims, with some viewing him in worse terms than late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Vucic was an ultranationalist politician in opposition to Milosevic, criticizing the Serb leader of leniency toward Bosnian Muslims.
Many Bosnian Muslims also still remember Vucic’s incendiary statement during the Balkan wars that for every dead Serb, 100 Muslims should be killed. Some in the crowd held a banner with the quote to remind him of his past.
Vucic’s security detail rushed him away, trying to protect him with bags, umbrellas and their raised arms from the projectiles raining down. His guards shoved through the angry crowd before pushing the prime minister inside an armored vehicle.
Vucic, who came to represent Serbia at the commemoration in an apparent gesture of reconciliation, said after the attack: “Today we are talking more about a bunch of fools rather than about the innocent victims of Srebrenica.” He added: “Arms of reconciliation remain stretched toward the Bosniaks.”
Serbia’s foreign ministry sent a protest note to Bosnia, saying the attack was a murder attempt against Vucic and urged that the culprits be caught.
Although the crowd booed Vucic’s arrival, Srebrenica widows and mothers welcomed his presence.
“Only on truth we can build a future. You cannot deny the truth,” Kada Hotic, who lost her son and husband in the massacre, told Vucic before the ceremony.
The Muslim Bosniak mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, apologized to Vucic, saying he was “deeply disappointed” about the attack.
Tens of thousands of people came to the commemorations marking two decades since Europe’s worst massacre since the Holocaust.
Foreign dignitaries urged the international community not to allow such atrocities to happen again and to call the crime “genocide.”
Serbia and Bosnian Serbs deny the killings were genocide, and claim the death toll has been exaggerated.
