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Srebrenica survivors accuse Nobel winners of genocide

SARAJEVO, Oct 12 (AFP) -Srebrenica massacre survivors accused the United Nations and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan of genocide on Friday in a bitter protest against a decision to award them the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. 
"The UN and Kofi Annan were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for genocide over Muslims of Podrinje (Srebrenica region) or, in fact, over all of Bosnia-Hercegovina's Muslims," a press release issued by the "Mothers of Srebrenica" group said.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute announced Friday that the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Annan and the UN for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world.
However, the association of Srebrenica massacre survivors, regrouping mainly women whose male relatives were killed, said Annan did nothing to prevent the massacre and should be held responsible.
The UN peacekeepers deployed in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war failed to prevent the slaughter of between 7,000 and 8,000 Muslims in the eastern city in July 1995 after it was captured by Bosnian Serb forces.
At the time of the massacre, described as the worst on European soil since World War II, Srebrenica had been proclaimed a UN safe haven and Annan was the head of UN peacekeeping missions.
"Mothers of Srebrenica" urged Friday that the Nobel Peace Prize be taken back and awarded to them.
Otherwise, they said "all UN member countries, but specifically the Muslim ones, are called upon to ignore their membership in the UN because this is proof that the UN is an anti-Muslim organization."
The association said that after the war, they called on the UN war crimes tribunal to charge Annan for his role "in Srebrenica genocide."
Some 250,000 died in the war, which ended when the United States made a decisive push for a peace accord that was signed after a NATO air campaign.