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Dragan Mektic. Photo: Anadolu.

Dragan Mektic on Saturday attempted to prevent a major controversy after he was quoted by Vecernji List newspaper as saying that the 1995 Srebrenica massacres were genocide, insisting that he had been misquoted.

“There are relevant documents proving genocide and the Serbs have to admit it,” Mektic was quoted by Vecernji List as saying.

Bosnian Serb leaders have long denied that the 1995 massacres were genocide, despite the rulings of Bosnian and international courts.

“Let’s take a look at Germany, the German parliament apologised for the Holocaust again the other day, and we Serbs have to go through this catharsis and recognise the genocide,” Mektic was quoted as saying by Vecernji List.

“Nobody can commit crimes like those in Srebrenica in my name. That was done by sick minds and those people need to be prosecuted,” he was also quoted as saying.

But after the Vecernji List article was published, Mektic told media that this was not what he said.

“I absolutely did not comment on that question about Srebrenica so I reject and deny it completely,” he said, Bosnian Serb TV station RTRS reported.

He insisted that he was actually talking about a statement that Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik made in 2000.

Mektic did however admit that a “horrible crime” was committed in Srebrenica.

Some 8,000 Bosniaks were massacred after Bosnian Serb forces overran Srebrenica in July 1995 – the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II.

The Bosnian state court and the Hague Tribunal have sentenced 38 people to a total of 637 years in prison for the killings, as well as handing down three life sentences.