Srebrenica massacre horror revisited

POTOCARI - More than 3000 Bosnian Muslims guarded by United States peacekeepers prayed in a meadow near Srebrenica yesterday for thousands of compatriots killed by Serb forces in Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War.

US troops as well as local Serb police were out in force along the road to Srebrenica and near the old battery factory in the suburb of Potocari where a lightly armed Dutch UN force had watched helplessly in July 1995 as Muslim men and boys were separated from families and led away by Bosnian Serbs.

Eight thousand Muslims were reported missing and are presumed to have been killed by Serbs, either in cold blood or as they tried to flee Srebrenica after nationalist Serb forces overran it despite its wartime status as a UN "safe area."

As the mourners set off, Nato peacekeepers were deployed to deter possible assaults by Serbs angry at being blamed for the Srebrenica bloodletting, but no incidents were reported.

The convoy of about 80 buses was rerouted at the last moment to avoid passing through the centre of the large, post-war Serb town of Bratunac - on the main road to Srebrenica - where some 100 people gathered. Along the road, some Serbs flashed their traditional nationalist three-finger salute.

In the meadow across from the battery factory, about 3100 mourners, many of them women and elderly, prayed and unveiled a foundation stone for a memorial centre that will be established alongside a graveyard for the victims' remains.

- REUTERS

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