Solana: "Internationale gemeenschap faalde in Srebrenica" (en)

The EU admitted partial responsibility for failing to prevent the Srebrenica killings of 10 years ago during a commemoration of the massacre on Monday (11 July).

It also insisted that EU integration for Bosnia and Herzegovina should be linked to cooperation with the United Nations (UN) war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

"The memories of that monstrous crime still haunt us all", EU high representative Javier Solana said in a statement.

"The victims had put their trust in international protection. But we, the international community, let them down. This was a colossal, collective and shameful failure", he added.

Mr Solana added that "Srebrenica was partly a consequence of the absence of a strong and united Europe".

On 11 July 1995, Serbian forces slaughtered some 8,000 muslim men and boys in the region of Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the exact number of victims still unknown today.

Following the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1992, Bosnian Serbs took control of most of eastern Bosnia, conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Bosnian muslims.

Srebrenica was one of the few remaining enclaves of Bosnian muslims in that area.

The killings that took place there are said to have been the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.

Cooperation with the war crimes tribunal

Present at the commemoration, EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn renewed calls for the men "bearing the main responsibility for the atrocities" - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic - to be handed over to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague as soon as possible.

For her part, UN prosecutor Carla del Ponte refused to attend the commemorations "out of respect for the victims", saying that she would not go to Srebrenica as long as Mr Karadzic and Mr Mladic remain at large.

The UN tribunal has charged 19 people in relation with the massacre.

Six have been sentenced, the most senior being Bosnian Serb commander Radislav Krstic, sentenced on appeal in 2004 to 35 years in jail for aiding and abetting genocide.

Ten others are being tried or are awaiting trial. Three remain at large, including Karadzic and Mladic.

Cooperation with the war crimes tribunal is one of the conditions for the Western Balkans countries to proceed with their EU accession bids.

EU future for Bosnia

"Bosnia and Herzegovina has the prospect of joining the European Union", Mr Rehn said.

"To work for a better future for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans in the EU is the best way to commemorate the victims of the Srebrenica massacre", he added.

Mr Solana echoed this statement, saying "Provided clear conditions are met, we will accompany Bosnia and Herzegovina towards its final destination of entry into the EU".

Meanwhile, the European Parliament last week adopted a resolution on Srebrenica, condemning the massacre and calling for action on the capture of the war crimes suspects.

On top of that, MEPs called for a revision of the Dayton agreements - the general framework for peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina - in order to "put a real end to the conflict, achieve a viable and lasting solution ... and rebuild a truly interethnic, intercultural and interreligious Bosnia and Herzegovina".

They also insisted that "the European perspective of the countries of the Western Balkans should be better defined".