Serbia PM Roughed Up at Srebrenica Memorial

Protesters commemorating victims of slaughter hurl objects
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 11, 2015 8:05 AM CDT
Serbia PM Roughed Up at Srebrenica Memorial
Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia's prime minister, center, is seen during a scuffle at the memorial complex near Srebrenica.   (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

Anger boiled over today at a massive commemoration of the Srebrenica slaughter 20 years ago as people pelted Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic with water bottles and other objects. Vucic was hit in the face with a stone and his glasses were broken, an associate who was with him tells the AP. "Masses broke the fences and turned against us." Tens of thousands came to the site in Bosnia-Herzegovina to mark the 20th anniversary of Europe's worst massacre since the Holocaust—the slaughter of 8,000 Muslims from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica at the hands of Bosnian Serbs.

Vucic, once an ultra-nationalist, came to represent his country at the commemoration in an apparent gesture of reconciliation. As he entered the cemetery to lay flowers, thousands booed and whistled. Someone threw a shoe at him, while others threw water bottles and other objects. Among the foreign dignitaries in attendance was Bill Clinton, who apologized that it took so long to end the war, reports the BBC. "I never want to see another killing field like this," he said. (Russia vetoed UN language calling the Srebrenica massacre a genocide.)

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