"The recent conclusions of Prime Minister Dodik of the Republika Srpska on the Srebrenica massacre are harmful to the interests of the people of the Republika Srpska. The statements of the government of the Republika Srpska of 19 April endanger the process towards a stable and prosperous future for all people in the region, including those that Prime Minister Dodik claims to represent," the German Christian Democrat member of the European Parliament warned in her statement on Thursday.

The Dodik government said on 19 April that it was necessary to research the events that occurred in the Srebrenica area from 1991 to 1995 in order to establish all the facts and the exact number of people killed there.

"Prime Minister Dodik is playing with fire in deliberately distorting the historical truth about the massacre in Srebrenica. His statements counter the wishes of all the people of Bosnia Herzegovina, including the Republika Srpska, for a future based on mutual understanding and prosperity," Pack said.

"The only future Mr Dodik has in mind is his own, and he seems prepared to sacrifice the future of the people in the region in the pursuit of a policy based on hatred and division, which in the 1990s was the basis of expulsion and war in Bosnia Herzegovina. What is he more interested in: his own political career or a peaceful future for the region where the children of the Republika Srpska can live and play side by side with their friends in other parts of Bosnia Herzegovina?" she concluded.

The conclusions of the Dodik government have also been condemned by the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as "a despicable attempt to question that genocide took place in Srebrenica in July 1995 by deliberately distorting established historical and legal facts, and propagating misinformation and disinformation with the intent to obscure the truth."