11 Jul 2010

Thousands to mark anniversary of Srebrenica massacre

10:43 pm on 11 July 2010

Hundreds more victims of the Srebrenica massacre are being buried at a ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the atrocity.

Tens of thousands of people are marking the anniversary of nearly 8000 Muslims by Bosnian Serbs, the darkest episode of the violent break-up of Yugoslavia.

A special ceremony at the Potocari cemetery near Srebrenica was to be attended by Serbian President Boris Tadic and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It will include the burial of 775 recently identified victims, who will join the 3749 already there.

Thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys were systematically killed in the days following the fall of the Srebrenica enclave to Bosnian Serb troops on 11 July, 1995. It had been designated as a United Nations safe area.

Ratko Mladic, the fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime military commander charged with genocide by the UN war crimes court, is still believed to be hiding in Serbia.

The other alleged mastermind behind the Bosnian Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing and the Srebrenica killings, political leader Radovan Karadzic, was arrested in Belgrade in 2008.

He is currently on trial for genocide before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.