Serb Leader Says Sorry to Bosnia

Eight years after a war that left more than 200,000 Bosnians dead and 2 million driven from their homes, a Serbian leader visited the Bosnian capital yesterday and for the first time said sorry.

Svetozar Marovic, president of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro, admitted that the people of Sarajevo, held within a brutal Serbian siege for more than three years, had suffered "evil".

"For that, we apologise," he said after meeting Bosnian leaders.

Although the surprise declaration was met by cynicism among many Bosnians, whose country remains partitioned along ethnic lines and under international stewardship as a result of the war, Mr Marovic's words look likely to help towards reconciliation.

In Belgrade in September, he made a similar apology to the people of Croatia for the crimes perpetrated by Serbs during the 1991-95 Serb-Croat war. The apology was reciprocated by president Stipe Mesic of Croatia.

Mr Marovic, referring to Serbia and Bosnia, stated that "we both need to be brave to say that we are ready to forgive". But there was no prospect of the Bosnian Muslims saying sorry for a war started by the Serbs and in which the Muslims were overwhelmingly the victims.

"Marovic is not important and anyway the apology probably came too late," said Senad Pecanin, editor of the Sarajevo news magazine Dani.

Mr Marovic is a Montenegrin, not a Serb, and has little power in Belgrade. The former Serbian leader and nationalist Vojislav Kostunica visited Sarajevo a couple of times as Yugoslav president but failed to issue any apology.