国际英语新闻：50,000 people gather to commemorate victims of Srebrenica massacre

BELGRADE, July 11 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 50,000 people attended the 15th anniversary of the massacre in Srebrenica, during which the remains of 775 identified victims were buried on Sunday at the Potocari Memorial Center, just outside the town of Srebrenica, reported Radio Sarajevo.

The worst massacre in Europe since World War II began on July 11, 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN designated safe haven of Srebrenica, occupied by Bosnian Muslims. Approximately 8, 000 men and boys were killed in the aftermath. This day is observed as the national day of mourning in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the Bosnian Muslim and Croat dominated entity of BiH.

Among the foreign dignitaries in attendance are Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, Montengrin President Filip Vujanovic, Slovenian President Danilo Turk, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Kouchner's message to the families of victims was "Srebrenica must remain etched in the memory of each of us, in the collective memory of Europe which we build."

Much local media attention was focused on the attendance of Serbian President Boris Tadic, who stated that "Serbia will not give up searching for the perpetrators of war crimes, in particular Ratko Mladic."Tadic said that the capture of Mladic, currently a fugitive wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was required for reconciliation among the peoples of the region.

Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb army, the highest ranking military official at Srebrenica, is wanted for his role in the massacre.

Zeljko Komsic, a member of the Presidency of BiH said Tadic's attendance at the commemoration was welcomed, but that the arrest of Mladic in either a domestic court or at the court in The Hague would have been a more concrete gesture.

"Dealing with the past is imperative -- the moral and political in each of us, and this is the first obligation of Serbia,"said Stasa Zajovic, an activist from Belgrade."We appreciate President Tadic's gesture, but we believe that this gesture is insufficient. Serbia's international obligation is to extradite Mladic, and to recognize that genocide occurred in Srebrenica."

Early this year the Serbian parliament passed a resolution condemning the crimes committed in Srebrenica.