Serbia and Montenegro PresidentSvetozar Marovic offered a landmark apology to Bosnia today for the 1992-5 war in which 200,000 died, most of themMuslims vastly outgunned by Belgrade-backed Bosnian Serbs.
He made the gesture eight years after NATO powers stoppedthe fighting and imposed the Dayton peace accord, and threeyears after the two countries - previously parts of Yugoslavia- established diplomatic relations and normalised ties.
That step came only after the ouster of Serbian nationalistleader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
Milosevic is on trial at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague forwar crimes in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. His immediatesuccessor, Vojislav Kostunica, visited Sarajevo three timesduring his tenure but refused to apologise.
Marovic - on his first official visit to the city whereover 10,000 people died during the three and a half year siege by Serbforces - said it was time for the two neighbours to forgive.
"I want to use this opportunity to apologise for every evilor misfortune which anyone in Bosnia-Herzegovina suffered fromanyone from Serbia and Montenegro," he said at a joint newsconference with Bosnian presidency chairman Dragan Covic.
"These are the times when apologies are not just courtesywords - they are words of sincere intentions," he said after ameeting of the inter-state council for cooperation.
Covic said Marovic's apology was an "encouragement for thefuture of the two countries and for the region as a whole".
