Bosnia's Srebrenica remains under Muslim lead

Srebrenica, where 8,000 Muslim men were massacred in 1995, has remained under the helm of a Muslim mayor after a municipal vote, officials said Monday. The once-Muslim majority town, which has become a gruesome symbol of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, came under the spotlight during municipal elections on October 7, as new electoral rules have pathed the way for wartime foes Serbs to take power there. But official results released Monday showed that Camil Durakovic, outgoing Muslim mayor, was re-elected with 46.4 percent of votes. Vesna Kocevic, the Serb candidate whose party has denied the legal definition of 1995 massacre as genocide, took 39.3 percent. "I am delighted that these results confirm our expectations and my victory," Durakovic told AFP by phone. Himself a massacre survivor, Durakovic has led the campaign to "save the Muslim identity of Srebrenica". In July 1995 Bosnian Serb forces summarily executed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys after they captured Srebrenica. Two international courts have ruled the massacre a genocide. The Muslims who survived were expelled and most of them never returned to Srebrenica, which now lies in the Serb-dominated part of the Balkan country. Some 14,000 registered voters now in Srebrenica are divided almost equally between Muslims and Serbs. For almost 17 years, Srebrenica Muslims who fled the town were allowed to vote in local elections, assuring them of a Muslim mayor. But this year, they have been stripped of that right after complex local voting laws were reformed, prompting fears that Serbs, who now have a slight majority in the town, can vote in their candidate as mayor.