PROMINENT Scottish MPs are among the signatories to an open letter sent to Boris Johnson demanding he "urgently apologise" for past comments in which he said the people murdered at Srebrenica in 1995 "weren't exactly angels".
Alyn Smith, Kenny MacAskill, Philippa Whitford, and John Nicolson are just four of the 30 MPs who signed the letter to Prime Minister Johnson, which states: "In July 1995, 8000 Muslim men and boys were rounded up from what was supposed to be a 'safe enclave' of Srebrenica protected by Dutch UN peacekeepers.
"They were taken away by Serbian forces and murdered.
"In 1997, when you were a political columnist for the Spectator, you wrote ... 'Alright, I say, the fate of Srebrenica was appalling. But they weren't exactly angels, these Muslims'."
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon pays tribute to Srebrenica victims and survivors
The letter, which is also signed by more than 100 representatives of the Muslim community, goes on to say it is "unthinkable" that Johnson would "publicly attend national memorial events without having apologised for such comments".
"There can be no excuse for blaming the victims of a genocide for its perpetration, not even for a Prime Minister" the letter continues.
"Meanwhile, to attend such events without reflection on your previous comments is an insult to the victims and their families who continue to suffer the consequences to this day."
Responding to the letter, Downing Street said that the Prime Minister's comments had been taken out of context.
The letter, penned by Tony Lloyd, the MP for Rochdale, says: "Considering your [Johnson's] long and significant history of racist, Islamophobic, and prejudicial statements, your comments about Srebrenica cannot be seen as an isolated incident."
The line in question was not from one of Johnson's comment pieces, but from an interview he conducted with Bianca Jagger which aimed to discover the celebrity's "motives" in having written a "moving essay" about the atrocity.
Iggy Ostanin, the investigative journalist who found the 1997 article, shared it in its entirety on Twitter.
Exclusive: I discovered a Boris Johnson article from 1997 where he wrote, “All right, I say, the fate of Srebrenica was appalling. But they weren't exactly angels, these Muslims.”
— Iggy Ostanin (@magnitsky) June 18, 2020
Over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, many as young as 12. pic.twitter.com/spTpOJySu4
Earlier today Johnson posted a video to his Twitter in memorial of the genocide, writing: "25 years ago, Europe witnessed the worst atrocity on its soil since the Second World War - the genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia.
"Today we mourn and remember the victims of those terrible crimes and stand with the families in their fight for justice."
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