FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF SREBRENICA MASSACRE MARKED

SARAJEVO/SREBRENICA, July 11 (Hina) - At least 3,000 Bosnian Muslims gathered on Tuesday in Potocari outside the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the gravest crime on the European territory in the last 50 years. #L# On 10 and 11 July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces, led by their then commander Ratko Mladic, seized Srebrenica, which two years before had been declared a U.N. safe zone. At least 13,000 people, of whom most were Muslim refugees from other parts of eastern Bosnia, were in Srebrenica at the time of its fall into the hands of Bosnian Serbs. Most of them sought refuge at the base of Dutch U.N. peace keepers in Potocari, whereas part of poorly armed members of the 28th division of the BH Army tried to fight their way through toward the northern town of Tuzla. It is estimated that Serb units killed between seven and eight thousand Muslims in Potocari and woods surrounding Srebrenica. Investigators are still searching for their remains and associations of exiled Srebrenica inhabitants have information on more than 10,000 missing persons. The head of the Muslim community in Bosnia, Mustafa Efendi Ceric, conducted a prayer for the victims in Srebrenica. Attending the ceremony in Potocari, at the location of a pre-war battery factory, along with the families of missing Srebrenica residents, were High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina Wolfgang Petritsch, BH Presidency members Alija Izetbegovic and Ante Jelavic, US Ambassador Thomas Miller and other members of the diplomatic corps. The ceremony in Potocari was planned exclusively as a religious event and the only speech dedicated to the Srebrenica tragedy was held yesterday by High Representative Petritsch at the opening of an exhibition of needlework of Srebrenica women in Sarajevo. On that occasion, Petritsch said that July 11 1995 was one of the darkest days in the more recent history. It is difficult even to imagine that civilised life could be destroyed in such a brutal and horrible way, Petritsch said, adding the victims of that crime were not only the 7,412 persons who were officially held missing but thousands of members of their families as well. As a representative of the international community, I am fully aware that on that day we let Srebrenica residents down. That day was a day of shame for the international community, Petritsch said. It is also inadmissible that a decision on the site where a monument to Srebrenica victims would be erected has not been adopted yet, he said, adding he would personally see that the monument was erected and that the return of Muslim refugees to Srebrenica, a town on the periphery of the Bosnian Serb entity, was accelerated. The US Embassy in Sarajevo issued a statement saying the fall of the enclave into the hands of Bosnian Serbs had led to a massacre unprecedented in Europe since the Holocaust. The US Government is committed to finding the missing persons and securing the appropriate burial of identified victims and it insists on the apprehension of all those responsible for the Srebrenica tragedy, the statement said. Today's ceremony in Potocari took place under unprecedented security measures. More than 700 police officers from Republika Srpska were in charge of securing Muslims in the town and their performance was discreetly monitored by international police forces (IPTF) and the Stabilisation Force (SFOR). The Croat-Muslim federation police carefully examined more than 60 buses full of Muslim refugees before they crossed over to the Bosnian Serb entity. The only incident registered on the night before the commemoration was the setting on fire of a Muslim house in Srebrenica. Alexandra Stiglmayer, spokeswoman for the Office of the High Representative (OHR), said the incident was a provocation because the house which had been set on fire was to be returned to its pre- war owners. The OHR demanded a decisive investigation by the local police and the punishment of the perpetrators. (hina) jn rml