( CNN ) -- Serbia 's president apologized Thursday for the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica , but declined to characterize the killings as an act of genocide . `` I kneel and ask for forgiveness , '' President Tomislav Nikolic told Bosnian TV . `` I apologize for the crimes committed by any person in the name of Serbia . '' Nikolic came under fire last year short after he was elected by declaring , according to published reports , there was no `` genocide '' in Srebrenica . He has since been urged by Bosnian leaders to acknowledge the killings , which the prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have described as a systematic extermination . Over a period of five days in July 1995 , the Bosnian Serb army conducted a brutal takeover of the town . About 8,000 men and boys were rounded up and killed , with many buried in mass graves . At the time of the massacre , Srebrenica had been designated a U.N. `` safe area '' for people , predominantly Bosnian Muslims , trying to escape the advancing Bosnian Serb army . The people of Srebrenica , which sits a short distance from the Serbian border , were protected by just 100 lightly equipped Dutch peacekeepers . Without reinforcements , the Dutch were forced to stand aside while Serb troops took the town . Then-Bosnian Serb commander-in-chief Gen. Ratko Mladic -- now on trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity -- allegedly told one woman everyone taken out of Srebrenica would be reunited with their loved ones , according to Serbian TV footage previously shown in court . Truckloads of men and boys were taken from Srebrenica to execution sites where they were bound , blindfolded , and shot with automatic rifles , prosecutors contend . In the aftermath of the massacre , the United Nations gave NATO the authority to launch large-scale airstrikes against Serb targets , a move that eventually forced the Serbs to the negotiating table . Journalist Matthew Day contributed to this report .
President Tomislav Nikolic apologized on Bosnian TV . The apology came after a video of the president saying he would not be able to attend an upcoming meeting with his Serbian counterpart because of "security reasons." About 8,000 Muslims , mostly boys and men , were killed in Srebrenica . The killings occurred over a period of five days in July 1995 .