SARAJEVO: Bosnian Muslims from the town of Srebrenica set up a protest camp in the capital Sarajevo on Monday, asking for self-rule free of the authority of the Bosnian Serbs, their wartime enemies.

The 1992-95 war among Serbs, Croats and Muslims ended with a deal splitting Bosnia in two parts, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Serb Republic. Srebrenica, site of the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serbs, went to the Serbs.

The town, 70 per cent Muslim before the war, is now mostly Serb. The remaining Muslims say the massacre means Serbs should have no authority and Srebrenica should run its own affairs, and threaten to move out of the town unless their demand is met.

“This will be a symbolic protest to tell everybody that we will not give up and that, with God's help, we will prevail,” said Camil Durakovic, leader of a group of some 50 men who camped in an abandoned parking lot near the city's Kosevo stadium.

Their demand is backed by the Muslim-Croat federation but hotly opposed by the Serbs and Bosnia's international peace overseer, who say that any change to the status quo has to come through consensus.—Reuters