Srebrenica Memorial Centre representatives have invited Montenegro's top officials including Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic, Deputy PM Dritan Abazovic, and Justice and Human and Minority Rights Minister Vladimir Leposavic to visit Srebrenica and pay respects to the genocide victims at the Potocari Memorial.

The invitation comes days after minister Leposavic's address in the Parliament of Montenegro when he questioned the legitimacy of the international courts that ruled the 1995 mass killing in the Bosnian eastern town of Srebrenica was an act of genocide, sparking reactions in his own country and the neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

President of Montenegro was among the first ones who reacted, saying that: “As long as there are ideologies that deny the crimes committed, the danger of new suffering does not cease.”

He was joined by Podgorica Mayor Ivan Vukovic, who told N1 that PM Krivokapic “shares the opinion of the Justice Minister,” while Abazovic's tweet on this matter was “only done to mitigate the damage.”

The issue also sparked the reactions of the US Embassy in Podgorica and Brussels, who condemned the Srebrenica genocide denial and called on the Government of Montenegro to condemn it.

The Steering Board of the Srebrenica Memorial Centre said on Thursday that Montenegro did a lot over the last 25 years on facing the past and in the fight against the denial of the crime of genocide and crime against humanity.

“The latest statements by prime minister Krivokapic, deputy prime minister Abazovic and minister Leposavic, which deny genocide, are relativising it or relativising other statements on questioning the facts determined in courts, pose an attack on the rule of law and the process of reconciliation in the region,” said the Srebrenica MC.

“If you don't trust the rulings of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, who are you going to trust then? Who is the authority whose word you would accept? You cannot join the European Union with such stances, you will lose with it everything you have been working hard on for years as a country that faced the crimes, genocide and the 1990s,” they added.

Srebrenica Memorial Centre thanked the international leaders and Montenegro's officials who timely reacted and showed care for “the dignity of victims and the protection of the facts about genocide.”