Serbs lose bid to run Srebrenica

Muslims have defeated a bid to put a Serb mayor in control of Srebrenica for the first time since the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims there by Bosnian Serb forces. The Serb candidate represented a party that disputes a UN ruling that the mass slaughter of Muslim men and boys constituted genocide.

The town, once predominantly Bosniak – Muslim – now has a majority Serb population but Muslims led a drive to register 2,000 absent voters that saw their candidate win.

Many Bosniaks saw the prospect of a Serb mayor as a threat to the status of a memorial complex where more than 5,600 victims of the massacre are interred.

REUTERS