High Representative Paddy Ashdown said in Sarajevo on 15 April that authorities in the Republika Srpska are engaging in "obstructionism" by holding up work on a comprehensive report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which up to 8,000 mainly Muslim males were killed, Reuters reported.

"It is simply not acceptable that nearly a decade after the shocking crimes of Srebrenica, there are still individuals or institutions in the [Bosnian Serb entity] who are trying to cover up these crimes, as [the new preliminary] report suggests".

The investigating commission consists of five Serbs appointed by Banja Luka and one Muslim war crimes investigator named by Ashdown.

The commission said in its new preliminary report that its work in producing a final study has been obstructed by the authorities in various ways, adding that it lacks sufficient independence to carry out its "difficult" task.

(RFE/RL 16.iv.04)