Serbia-Montenegro: President of Serbia-Montenegro Svetozar Marovic has told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs he is "ashamed" of the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995, which was "the crime of all crimes".
The massacre was "a symbol of killing" in the former Yugoslavia, said President Marovic, who was completing a two-day official visit. His government would "do everything in our power" to bring those responsible to justice, including Gen Ratko Mladic.
President Marovic was responding to comments by Fianna Fáil senator Paschal Mooney who said he could not accept that the Serbia-Montenegro authorities could not locate Gen Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.
Mr Mooney said that as long as these "murdering thugs" were at large, there would be a question-mark over the ability of Serbian and Montenegro to "enter the family of nations".
President Marovic responded that Mr Karadzic was "not on our territory", since he was in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Mr Marovic told the committee that "important steps" had been made in the last few months towards future EU membership for Serbia and Montenegro.
In the referendum on Montenegro's independence, he said "everyone will do everything in their power" to organise it according to European standards.
Speaking later at the Institute of European Affairs, the president said Serbia and Montenegro had been "commended" by all the international institutions for improving its co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
He added that all the institutions and the majority of citizens in Serbian and Montenegro agreed that "joining the European Union is a social priority".
Visiting Ireland was an opportunity to draw on the "rich experiences" of this country in transforming its economy.
The president said "things have improved" in Kosovo, adding that "Albanians and Serbs must live together". He called on the ethnic Albanian majority to "encourage the Serbs to return to their homes".
He said: "The Kosovo situation should be solved by those living in Kosovo."