Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has apologised for war crimes committed in the name of Serbia and has asked for forgiveness for his country for its role in the Srebrenica massacre and said he will personally pay his respects to the victims of the Srebrenica massacre.
"I kneel and ask for a pardon for Serbia for the crimes committed in Srebrenica. I apologise for the crimes that were committed by members of our nation in the name of our state and our people," Nikolic said in an interview with the Bosnian public television broadcaster BHT, excerpts of which were carried by electronic media in Belgrade on Thursday quoting the Sarajevo news portal klix.ba.
According to klix.ba, Nikolic said that he regarded Serbs from the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Bosnians, even though some of them did not like to be called that. He was also quoted as saying that he would visit Srebrenica soon, but that could not be heard in the excerpt.
BHT will air the interview on May 7.
Nikolic met with Bosnian Presidency members Bakir Izetbegovic and Nebojsa Radmanovic in Belgrade on April 23 when they concluded that there should no longer be any disagreements or misunderstanding between them and that the two countries should be connected more closely so that tragic experiences from the 20th century would not be repeated.
