775 Coffins: Bosnia Marks 1995 Srebrenica Massacre

by RADUL RADOVANOVIC

SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Hoisting hundreds of coffins aloft, a line of weeping relatives stretched for at least a mile (1.6 kilometers) Sunday as they honored Srebrenica massacre victims on the 15th anniversary of the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.

 A whole hillside in the eastern Bosnian town was dug out with graves, waiting for 775 coffins covered in green cloths to be laid to rest at the biggest Srebrenica funeral so far.

Still, that was less than a tenth of the total number of Muslim men and boys executed after Serb forces overran the U.N.-protected town on July 11, 1995, during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

…Serbian President Boris Tadic was the first dignitary to arrive Sunday, saying he was coming in an “act of reconciliation.” Some in the crowd yelled “Bravo, Boris!” while others asked “Where is Mladic?” — a reference to former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who led the Serb troops into Srebrenica…Mladic and former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic were indicted with genocide for the Srebrenica massacre by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in 1995. Karadzic is now on trial at the tribunal in The Hague while Mladic is still a fugitive, presumably hiding in Serbia…CONT’D AT ABCNEWS.COM>>

[story and photo via abcnews.com]