Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied genocide in Srebrenica during his meeting with a senior US official.
"Serbia and the US do not agree on the issues of Kosovo and Srebrenica," Vucic said after talks with US Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien.
In the summer of 1995, in the protected enclave of Srebrenica, Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Radko Mladic massacred over 9,000 Bosnian Muslims in hours. So far, the bodies of nearly 8,800 of them, who were buried in Potochari, have been identified.
As for the UN resolution on genocide, which will be voted on in May, Vucic explained that the two have discussed it for a long time and he is "particularly concerned" about this issue.
"I know what it means and how it will disrupt relations in the region. Remember, this was made as a decision of one people against another people within Bosnia and Herzegovina itself," he pointed out.
Vucic claims that the issue of this resolution was illegally moved from the Security Council to the UN General Assembly.
"I told O'Brien to his face everything that is important for our citizens. How difficult what is happening is for the Serbian people," said the head of state of Serbia.
The Serbian president also said that Belgrade is not planning any invasion of Kosovo.
"We agree that it is very important to preserve peace and stability. I promised that Serbia will behave responsibly and seriously, and I explained what lies are coming from those who talk about some kind of invasion, war, since we do not even intend to participate in such things," added Vucic after the talks.
The Serbian president claimed that "the State Department, NATO, the EU and everyone else is silent about the daily arrests and beatings of Serbs in Kosovo."
"But well, that's why they will be rewarded with membership in the Council of Europe. I also told Mr. O'Brien - Serbia will oppose this violence against the Serbian state and people and will fight. If we lose - we will lose, what else we can do," Vucic pointed out.
BGNES recalls that in the tragic summer of 1995, the current Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, was the minister of information in the cabinet of dictator Slobodan Milosevic. In front of the parliament in Belgrade, Vucic declared that "for every Serb killed, there will be 100 Bosnians." The genocide in Srebrenica was confirmed by the verdict of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
For his part, James O'Brien today explained that as a young lawyer he worked "on the investigation of the crimes in Srebrenica".
"I was a young lawyer working on the investigation of war crimes and I was part of the first team of those who investigated the killings in Srebrenica. It is a crime, but many of the perpetrators were investigated and convicted," O'Brien said at the press conference.
"At that time, the forces of the Republika Srpska and the Serbian government guaranteed our security, and then the representatives of the UN were with us while we sought the truth. This is what we are doing today and we must face the truth," he added. /BGNES
