Srebrenica

Montenegrin Minister of Justice, Human and Minority Rights Vladimir Leposavic. Photo: Government of Montenegro.

Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic proposed the sacking of Leposavic on Monday after the minister expressed doubt about the international court's ruling classifying the 1995 Srebrenica massacres of Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb forces as genocide.

Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic on Monday proposed the sacking of Minister of Justice, Human and Minority Rights Vladimir Leposavic after he expressed doubt about the rulings of international courts classifying the 1995 Srebrenica massacres by Bosnian Serb forces as genocide.

Krivokapic said he called on the minister to resign in a private conversation, but Leposavic refused.

Montenegro's Minister of Justice, Human and Minority Rights Vladimir Leposavic. Photo: Parliament of Montenegro.

"The embassy is concerned with comments casting doubt about what occurred in Srebrenica in 1995. We look for clarity and hope the government will unequivocally condemn the massacre and call it what it was - genocide," the US embassy said in a post on Twitter.

Bosniak political parties are to boycott re-run local elections in the town of Srebrenica on February 21, claiming the authorities are not doing enough to tackle irregularities which they allege worked to the benefit of Serb candidates in the original vote in November.

The government of the Netherlands on Thursday offered one-off payments of 5,000 euros each to members of the Dutchbat UN peacekeeping battalion who served in Srebrenica in July 1995 but failed to prevent the massacres of Bosniak men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces.

Belgrade Higher Court on Monday separated the case against Dragomir Parovic, who is accused of involvement in killing 1,313 Bosniak civilians at a farm in Kravica near Srebrenica in July 1995, from the case against his seven co-defendants as he is no longer able to participate in the trial.

Bosnia's Election Commission, the CIK, has filed a lawsuit against Bosnian Serb strongman and Serbian member of the state presidency Milorad Dodik, accusing him of inciting national hatred. The crime carries a statutory sentence of three months to ten years in prison if the accused is found guilty.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Wednesday declined a request from Vujadin Popovic, the former chief of security of the Bosnian Serb Army's Drina Corps, to be released on probation for the rest of his life sentence.

Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld-Schouten told the Dutch parliament that relatives of a group of Srebrenica victims who were killed in July 1995 can submit requests for compensation from the start of March next year, after a Dutch court ruled that the state has partial responsibility for several hundred deaths.

Bosniak Party MP Ervin Ibrahimovic during a parliament session in Podgorica. Photo: Parliament of Montenegro.

"We have to face the past and pay homage to the victims. That is the task of Montenegro, which should continue the course that makes it a factor of stability in the region," Ibrahimovic told media.