Serbs commemorate war victims in Sarajevo

AFP , Thursday 3 May 2012

Dozens gather in Sarajevo to commemorate Serbian soldiers killed in city at start of Bosnia's three-year-long war

Around 100 Members of the dead soldiers' families and Bosnian Serb officials laid flowers in a downtown Sarajevo street on Thursday where a convoy of the Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA) was attacked by Bosnian government forces as it was withdrawing from the capital.

As the mourners and officials approached the scene several dozen Sarajevans gathered nearby, chanting: "Killers, Killers!"

The ceremony, held under heavy police presence, eventually ended without incident, local media said.

At the same time and just nearby veterans of the Muslim-led Bosnian army paid their respects to their own soldiers killed in Sarajevo at the start of the war.

The commemoration of the Serb soldiers was held for the first time in 2010, sparking controversy when mayor Alija Behmen urged police to ban it as a "provocation" by Bosnian Serbs.

The attack on the JNA convoy on May 3, 1992, has never been dealt with by the courts. Organisers of the ceremony say that 42 soldiers and officers were killed, while Bosnian prosecutors put the death toll at seven.

The 1992-1995 war between Bosnia's Croats, Muslims and Serbs killed some 100,000 people. The conflict left the country deeply divided along ethnic lines.

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