30,000 mark Bosnian atrocity

BALKANS:More than 30,000 gathered at Srebrenica yesterday to mark the 12th anniversary of the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb soldiers, who overran the so-called UN safe haven to commit the worst atrocity in Europe since the second World War.

Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte met relatives of the dead at a ceremony to bury 465 recently discovered victims beside some 2,400 others, in a vast cemetery just across the road from an abandoned factory that was their last refuge from the Bosnian Serb onslaught.

"This rain reflects our sadness, even the sky is mourning our dead," said Srebrenica mayor Abdurahman Malkic as the crowd braved torrential rain to recall the atrocities of July 1995 and demand the capture of Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb president during a 1992-5 war, and Ratko Mladic, his military commander. In a statement paying respects to the victims of Srebrenica, Serb president Boris Tadic said Belgrade was determined to catch the fugitives.

Bosnia's Muslims complain that not enough is being done to hunt down Mladic, Karadzic or the many Bosnian Serbs still in official and police posts who were involved in the massacre.

On the eve of yesterday's anniversary, Bosnia's new international high representative, Miroslav Lajcak, sacked a top policeman and suspended dozens more who are suspected of playing a role in the killings. He also ordered the seizure of passports belonging to 93 officials who are being investigated for their part in the July 1995 events.

"Mirnesa Sinanovic (21), who was burying her father, welcomed the gesture but said she was too scared to live in Srebrenica, which is part of the Serb-run part of Bosnia.

"Lajcak did a fair thing for us, the victims," she said. " until we feel safe and secure, we will not return."