Organisations of the families of Srebrenica genocide victims sent an open letter to Croatian President Zoran Milanović on Wednesday calling on him to respect the decisions of his own country, whose institutions have explicitly condemned the genocide of Bosniaks committed by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

Mothers from the Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves” and the Association of Genocide Victims and Witnesses said in the letter that in his recent statements Milanovic had denied that the massacre of Bosniaks at Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, was an act of genocide despite the fact that it was declared so by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), whose establishment and work was supported by Croatia.

“To our knowledge, Croatia still supports this court. It has never withdrawn its consent to cooperate with this court,” the two organisations noted after Milanovic said on Tuesday he did not consider court judgments as something that could not be questioned.

“No court judgment can be the Holy Scripture. … 5,000 or 8,000 or 80,000 people is not the same. It's not the same whether it happens in gas chambers or whether it happens with machetes,” Milanovic said.

The two organisations noted that the International Court of Justice had also found the Srebrenica massacre to be an act of genocide and that the Srebrenica genocide had been condemned by a Croatian Parliament resolution.

“If you do not respect others, at least respect the decisions of the country that you represent,” the letter said in conclusion.