Rajko Vasic, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats' (SNSD) main board member, mocked the flames which engulfed the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral, on his Twitter account.
“Let them burn who ever bombed Serbs and the innocent and helples Republika Srpska and Serbia,” Vasic tweeted.
Нека гори, когод је бомбардовао Србе, недужне и немоћне, Српску и Србију. https://t.co/iKUgVCnArO
— Васић Рајко (@VasicRajko) April 15, 2019
Vasic's earlier tweets also caused controversy. Last year Vasic took to Twitter and denied that Srebrenica genocide ever took place, saying it was a lie made up by Sarajevo and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in an effort to portray Bosnian Muslims as victims.
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the eastern Bosnian enclave and rounded up the town’s Muslim Bosniaks, separated men from women and little children and systematically executed some 8,000 of them.
The SNSD, which is in power in Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated semi-autonomous entity within the country, said it does not comment any statement made on Twitter.
Firefighters were able to bring the Notre Dame's blaze under control in the early hours of Tuesday. One of the firefighters was seriously injured. The fire which broke out on Monday morning quickly spread across the roof which later collapsed along with the monument's spire.
The firefighters managed to prevent the collapse of the main belltower and tried to save some of the relics and priceless artefacts.
