(Vatican Radio) Tensions are rising in Bosnia-Herzegovina where preliminary results
show a Serb has won the local elections in the town of Srebrenica, the site of Europe's
worst massacre since World War Two. Vesna Kocevic is expected to become Srebrenica's
first Serbian mayor since the Bosnian war ended 12 years ago. Initial results show
she received most votes in this Bosnian town of 7,000 people. That's because thousands
of Muslims who fled the area were no longer allowed to participate in Srebrenica's
elections. Kosevic says she will be the mayor of everyone, but not all Muslims are
convinced. "To Muslims, it will be very hard to live here, to stay," said local resident
Sale Salihovic. Muslims fear the results reward genocide in Srebrenica, where some
8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995. Listen to
this report from regional correspondent Stefan J. Bos:
The mothers
and widows of those who died, boarded buses Tuesday to travel to the European Court
of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. They demand that international institutions
such as the United Nations take responsibility for Europe’s worst massacre since World
War II. Yet as they left, results of Sunday's local elections showed that the wounds
of history have not yet healed completely with people voting along ethnic lines in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, which remains divided between a Serb and Muslim Croat entity.
Even the party of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadovic, who allegedly oversaw the
Srebrenica massacre, won dozens of mayoral seats. But in one place religious Muslims
are heavily represented: The town of Visoko elected Europe's first mayor wearing the
hijab headscarf.