Grabar-Kitarovic’s predecessor Ivo Josipovic in 2010 also visited the two villlages and was the first Croatian leader to acknowledge the Ahmici massacre victims.

Local imam Mahir Husic said Grabar-Kitatovic’s gesture was a “very important message which advocates peace and co-existence.”

Bosnian Croats sentenced by the UN war crimes court over the Ahmici atrocity included Dario Kordic, vice-president of the self-declared Bosnian Croat state within Bosnia, who was sentenced to 25 years in jail.

In its final verdict in November, the UN court sentenced on appeals six former Bosnian Croat wartime leaders. One of them, Slobodan Praljak, committed suicide drinking poison in the courtroom.

Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war claimed some 100,000 lives.