Reuters AlertNet Lite - Facebook removes group celebrating Bosnia killings

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

Facebook removes group celebrating Bosnia killings

15 Dec 2008 16:38:38 GMT
Source: Reuters

SARAJEVO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Social networking site Facebook closed down a Serbian group that celebrated the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica after online appeals from about 14,000 people in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia.

The group "Noz Zica Srebrenica" (The Knife The Wire Srebrenica), written in Serbian cyrillic script, extolled the detention and killing of around 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 by Bosnian Serb forces, commanded by fugitive General Ratko Mladic.

"For all those who respect the acts of Ratko Mladic," said the 1,000-member-strong nationalist group, "For all those who think that Muslims are best on the spit and while swimming in sulphur acid."

A rival multi-ethnic group, created last Monday in Serbia's Muslim-dominated Sandzak province under the name "Close Group Noz Zica Srebrenica", protested to Facebook about the site and grew in a week to nearly 30,000 members.

In reply to a Reuters query, a Facebook spokesperson said that although controversy alone would not be a reason to stop online conversations, "when content violates our terms of use, we will not hesitate to remove it". (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Louise Ireland and Adam Tanner)

AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article Send comments

Latest news

• Facebook removes group celebrating Bosnia killings

• Bosnians want Serb group shut down on Facebook

• Six million trapped as long-term refugees - UNHCR

• Bosnia Serb court to rule in Feb. on mosque claim

• Croat police raid top crime suspects in Zagreb

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by