Muslims from the town of Srebrenica have warned that the upcoming local elections could represent the “final step of a genocide” if Bosnian Serb candidates were to win.

The town, infamous for its massacre of 8,000 young Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995, has seen many Muslims stripped of their voting rights this year after complex voting laws were enforced.

The move has sparked fears that a Serb majority would allow a Bosnian Serb candidate to succeed, reported Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Kada Hotic, representing an organization of Srebrenica mothers who lost family members said that a Serb win "would be quite simply the final step of a genocide, an ethnic cleansing". She commented,

"Everything will be in danger, the existence of the Muslims who returned to Srebrenica, our memorial centre. We could even see a Serb mayor banning the yearly genocide commemoration."

"The international community has abandoned us now ... Srebrenica should be given back to the Muslims,"

Muslim returnee to the town Hatidza Mehmedovic who lost her husband and sons in the massacre also said,

"Serbs will never accept the truth of what happened here. They know very well but their politics will not allow them to admit it”.

The incumbent Srebrenica mayor Camil Durakovic, who survived the massacre and spent almost a decade as a refugee in the United States, said,

"Here we should have a council that does not deny genocide, which is a sacred issue for Muslims and every normal human being.”

Muslim fears that Bosnian Serb leaders such as Milorad Dodik would win were elevated after he told a rally in September, "there was no genocide!" and it was part of a "Western plan to blame the Serb community."