COMMEMORATION TO VICTIMS OF SREBRENICA TRAGEDY STARTS

SARAJEVO/SREBRENICA, July 11 (Hina) - More than 3,000 survivors of the Srebrenica tragedy gathered on Thursday in this eastern Bosnian town to mark the seventh anniversary of the massacre of Bosniaks committed by Bosnian Serbs under the command of Ratko Mladic. #L# Also present in Potocari, where in 1995 Dutch soldiers were deployed within the UNPROFOR, were chairman of the Bosnian Presidency Beriz Belkic, High Representative Paddy Ashdown, head of the UN Mission Jacques Klein and numerous ambassadors accredited in Bosnia. Bosnian Serb officials did not attend the commemoration. The head of the Islamic community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, effendi Mustafa Ceric conducted the religious ceremony. Today's commemoration to the Bosniak victims of Srebrenica is held under intensive security measures. Exactly seven years ago, Bosnian Serb units, under the command of Ratko Mladic, ran over the former U.N. safety zone and started mass killings of captured Bosniaks. This is the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. It is believed that in less than five days 8,000- 10,000 Bosniaks, including a large number of children and elderly men, were killed. The survivors of the massacre were safeguarded by almost 2,000 Bosnian Serb policemen in cooperation members of the International Police Task Force and the SFOR. (hina) it