BELGRADE (AFP)---The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre issued an apology Tuesday after it called for a ban on a concert at a former World War II concentration camp in Belgrade that had already been cancelled.
"Contrary to information received from an ostensibly reliable press source in Belgrade and to the press advisory released this morning, the Israeli group Skazi will not perform this week on the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Sajmiste in Belgrade," it said in a statement.
"The Simon Wiesenthal Centre wishes to apologise to the Skazi group and reiterate our call to the Serbian authorities to find an appropriate way to honour the memory of the tens of thousands of innocent civilians -- Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies -- murdered in this horrible Nazi concentration camp."
In a statement released earlier on Tuesday, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre urged Serbian authorities to cancel the performance of the Israeli techno music act and find an alternative venue.
The site managers responded by telling Beta news agency they already ordered the cancellation of "all music manifestations until further notice" after British pop group Kosheen was forced to pull out of a concert at the same location following similar objections.
An estimated 48,000 people including 8,000 Jews were killed at Staro
Sajmiste -- an old fair grounds on the left bank of the Sava River in central Belgrade -- during Nazi Germany’s occupation of the region