Eight years after the Srebrenica massacre, weeping families lay their loved ones to rest

Thousands of mourners gathered near Srebrenica yesterday to lay to rest the first identified victims of Europe's worst civilian massacre since the Second World War.

About 600 Muslim men and boys slaughtered by the Bosnian Serbs were buried in a new graveyard in the village of Potocari, where they were separated from their families in July 1995. More than 7,000 of them are believed to have been killed in mass executions.

"That day, the Earth and the sky were burning," said Mirsada Stocevic, 27, describing how Serb soldiers separated her and her 15-month-old son, Mujo, from her husband, Mustafa. "He said, 'Don't worry about me. Take care of the child.' Then they took him away and I never saw him again."

Mujo, now aged nine, said: "I came to see where their graves are. I don't remember him, but I'd like to touch the coffin once we find it."

Security was tight for the funeral, with Nato helicopters patrolling the skies and 1,800 police officers and Natopeace-keepers deployed in the area. The Bosnian government declared a national day of mourning and the ceremony was televised across the country. Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, the European Union's high representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, helped lower coffins into graves.

The victims had sought protection in a UN compound in Potocari, eastern Bosnia, but the lightly armed Dutch UN peace-keepers were no match for the Serb forces. More than 5,000 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves. The 600 bodies re-buried were identified using DNA analysis.

Many of the perpetrators remain at large, including Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, and General Ratko Mladic, his wartime military chief.

Both have been indicted for genocide by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, is being tried. Mr Milosevic has denied involvement in the Srebrenica massacre.

The funeral was led by Mustafa Ceric, the head of Bosnia's Islamic community. He called for justice, but urged the victims' families to refrain from seeking revenge. "He who gives up his right for revenge will be rewarded with the forgiveness of all of his sins," he said.

Ramo Smajic, 14, was there to see his father Faiko buried. "I can't understand the person who took my father's life," he said. "May every day of his life be like this day for me."