UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has apologised for the performance of a Serbian song linked to the Srebrenica massacres, at a concert in the UN General Assembly at New York on Monday.

The concert saw a performance from the Viva Vox choir from Serbia who performed “March of the Drina”, a song originally written to praise Serbian troops killed in World War I, but since used as a Serb nationalist anthem during the Bosnian War. The song’s lyrics depict Bosnia’s main river, the Drina, stating “Near cold water/Blood was flowing/Blood was streaming: By the Drina was freedom!”.

The performance received a standing ovation from Ban Ki Moon and other UN officials.

The Congress of North American Bosniaks, The Institute for Research of Genocide Canada, the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Cente wrote to Ban saying,

"The genocide that occurred in Srebrenica and Zepa, and other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was conducted by Serbian aggressors while blasting this song as they raped, murdered, and ethnically cleansed the non-Serb population".

Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky has since said,

"We sincerely regret that people were offended by this song… The Secretary-General obviously was not aware what the song was about or the use that has been made of it in the past."

However the UN General Assembly president, Vuk Jeremic, a former Serbian foreign minister, defended the song on Thursday, commenting,

“We are very proud of it, and we wanted to share it with the world with a clearly stated accompanying message of reconciliation for present and future generations."