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BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina : The Bosnian Serb speaker of parliament on Friday warned of anti-Muslim violence during the commemoration of a 1995 massacre next week after a recent "scandalous" UN verdict.
"I urge the citizens of the Republika Srpska... to stay calm in order to avoid disturbances of peace following the scandalous decision of The Hague court," said Igor Radojicic, speaker of the parliament in the Serb-run part of Bosnia.
Tens of thousands of Muslims are expected to gather on July 11 in the eastern town to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre.
Radojicic was referring to a UN appeals court decision on Thursday to reverse a war crimes conviction against the former commander of Bosnian Muslim forces in Srebrenica, Naser Oric.
Oric was convicted in June 2006 of failing to prevent subordinates from killing six Bosnian Serb prisoners and maltreating others held in 1992 and 1993 in Srebrenica -- later the scene of the worst atrocity of Bosnia's 1992-95 war, with the killing of some 8,000 Muslim males by Serb forces.
The UN decision "could provoke certain consequences on the ground considering that the Srebrenica commemoration is held on July 11, while in the following days Serbs commemorate their victims" in the area, Radojicic told journalists.
According to Bosnian Serb associations more than 3,000 Serb soldiers and civilians were killed by Muslim forces in eastern Bosnia.
According to Radojicic "there are reactions on the ground, people who were hit by war crimes are disappointed by the Oric verdict".
Srebrenica is part of the Republika Srpska which along with the Muslim-Croat Federation makes up post-war Bosnia.
The Srebrenica massacre is the only episode of Bosnia's war that the tribunal has identified as genocide.
The alleged masterminds of the slaughter, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his army chief Ratko Mladic, are still at large but wanted for war crimes.
- AFP /ls
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