Serbian PM stoned during Srebrenica massacre anniversary

Srebrenica

An angry crowd disrupted a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslims in Bosnia, hurling stones at Serbia's premier and forcing him to flee the event marking Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic had just laid a flower at a monument for the thousands of victims identified and buried there when the crowd started chanting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) and throwing stones, forcing the Serbian leader to run for cover shielded by his bodyguards. 

Serbia's Tanjug state-run news agency said Vucic was hit on the head by a stone and had his glasses broken.

Vucic, whose country backed Bosnian Serbs during and after the 1990s inter-ethnic war in Bosnia, was among numerous dignitaries, including former US president Bill Clinton, and tens of thousands of people attending the commemoration in the eastern Bosnian town.

Shortly before arriving, Vucic condemned the "monstrous crime" in Srebrenica, where some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered by Bosnian Serb forces who captured Srebrenica in July 1995, near the end of the war. 

Serbia quickly reacted to the incident, calling the stone-throwing in neighbouring Bosnia an attack against the country.

"It is an attack not only against Vucic but against all of Serbia and its policy of peace and regional cooperation," Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said in a statement.