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Bosnia: thousands to attend 23rd Srebrenica commemoration

Funeral of identified victims. March along 'death road'

11 July, 16:56
(ANSA) - SARAJEVO, JULY 11 - Thousands of people on Wednesday are expected to take part in a ceremony at the cemetery of Potocari outside Srebrenica to commemorate the 8,372 victims of the genocide on July 1995 and attend the funeral of 35 victims who were exhumed from mass graves and identified this year. On Tuesday afternoon, 6,000 people reached Potocari to attend the 'Peace March': young and elderly demonstrators, women and men from Bosnia and other countries, the few survivors of the massacre, walked along the 'road of death', following the path of the 15,000 men and boys who crossed woods to flee to Tuzla, an area under the control of government forces, after Serbian troops led by general Ratko Mladic took Srebrenica. The remains of 6,575 victims are in the cemetery of Potocari while an additional 500 have been buried elsewhere, according to their families' wish. The victims to be buried on Wednesday include four teens between 16 and 17 years of age. The youngest victim is Vesid Ibric, 16 while the oldest is Sahin Halilovic who was 71 when he was killed. A young woman, 20-year-old Remzija Dudic will also be buried today. International tribunals and Bosnian courts so far have sentenced 45 people to a total of 700 years in jail for the Srebrenica massacre. They include former Serbian-Bosnian political leader Radovan Karadzic who was sentenced to 40 years in prison. A court of first instance also sentenced Ratko Mladic to life in jail. A total of 30,000 people are expected to attend the commemoration on Wednesday. (ANSA).

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