The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Monday denied reports in the Balkan media that a judge assigned to try Bosnian Serb former general Ratko Mladic has cast doubt on whether the Srebrenica massacre was genocide, DPA reported.
A spokeswoman for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Nerma Jelacic, said she wanted "to denounce in the strongest possible terms" a misrepresentation of a 2009 interview in German news magazine Der Spiegel with the German judge, Cristoph Fluegge.
"In this interview, when asked whether the Srebrenica massacre can be defined as genocide, Judge Fluegge stated unequivocally that he did not wish to discuss this specific case... He then went on to answer questions relating to the definition of genocide," Jelacic said.
"Reports that Judge Fluegge publicly denied that genocide was committed in Srebrenica are not only incorrect but a blatant misrepresentation of the content of this interview," she stressed.
Jelacic also denied reports that Fluegge had been assigned to preside over the Mladic case. "A decision as to which of the three judges assigned to this case will preside has yet to be issued," she said.
Mladic was arrested in Serbia on Thursday and awaits extradition to The Hague. The tribunal accused him in 1995 of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Mladic, 69, was charged as the commanding officer at the time of the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities.