Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that Novi Pazar FC supporters showed what they truly think by shouting slogans which Serbian nationalists consider offensive during a match with Belgrade-based Partizan FC.

Sunday’s match in the western Serbian city of Novi Pazar was interrupted for some 40 minutes when supporters of both clubs shouted nationalist slogans. The Novi Pazar supporters chanted Naser Oric (war-time commander of Bosnian forces in Srebrenica who Serbs claim is guilty of war crimes), Kosovo is Next Door to Serbia, This is Bosnia and Yellow House (an allusion to a house in Albania where Serb prisoners were allegedly taken and killed for their organs) while the Partizan supporters shouted Knife, Wire, Srebrenica and Ratko Mladic.

Novi Pazar lies in the Sandzak region of Serbia along the border with Bosnia and has a large Muslim/Bosniak population.

Vucic said that what the Partizan supporters chanted is absolutely unacceptable but added that Novi Pazar supporters showed their true face.

“Partizan supporters can be said to be organized but the others (Novi Pazar supporters) are ordinary people who showed what they think of me (by shouting Vucic Fagot), that is not important but what is important is what they think of Serbia and how deep the divisions are,” Vucic told the pro-government TV Pink.

He said that chants offensive to him are a democracy but that chanting Kosovo is Next Door to Serbia is a violation of the constitution (the preamble to the Serbian constitution states that Kosovo is part of Serbia). “We have to consider the future as serious people. The point of going to a football match is to cheer for your club or else go do something else. Just tell us that this has nothing to do with sports,” he said.

According to Vucic, Serbs have to take into account the emotions of the Bosniaks in Serbia but the Bosniaks have to do the same because they all live in Serbia.

Earlier, Internal Affairs Minister Aleksandar Vulin questioned the criteria to interrupt Sunday’s match. He said that the Knife, Wire, Srebrenica chant is certainly reason enough to stop play but asked why the Yellow House chant was not. Vulin said that league organizers have to define equal rules for everyone to prevent decisions from being taken under pressure.

The Voice of America quoted an unnamed State Department spokesperson who said that “glorifying war criminals and genocide is unacceptable and welcomed the reaction of the authorities who helped get the match continued in safety.