BELGRADE, May 23. /TASS/. The world community turns a blind eye on the death of about 3,500 ethnic Serbs in the Srebrenica region at the hands of Islamist forces during the armed conflict in the early 1990s, Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska (Entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina), said at a commemoration ceremony in Bratunac.

"It is a hard fact, completely ignored by the powers that be and our neighbors, that 3,500 Serbs died in crimes committed by Muslim organizations in these territories, and that no one has been held accountable for these crimes," the Tanjug news agency quotes Dodik as saying.

Srebrenica is a small mining town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1991, its population was ethnically mixed, consisting of Bosniaks (Slavic Muslims) and Serbs. After Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in April 1992 and the Serbs living in BiH unilaterally proclaimed the independent Republika Srpska, Srebrenica became a predominantly Muslim enclave within its territory.

Between the summer of 1992 and February 1993, Muslim militias launched several attacks against Serbs, including in and around Srebrenica, causing a Serb exodus. In March 1993, RS army units launched an offensive to protect the Serb population, pushed back Bosniak units and surrounded the city. On July 6, 1995, Republika Srpska troops launched an offensive on Srebrenica, and on July 11 they entered the city.

After taking Srebrenica, the Serbs offered the Muslims an evacuation. Under the control of UN peacekeepers, all those who wished to leave the city left, mostly women and children, but most of the male population remained. On July 12, reports about a massacre of Muslims followed. The exact number of victims has not been documented. The list of those who went missing or were killed at that time, compiled by the Bosnian Federal Commission on Missing Persons, contains 8,372 names.