SREBRENICA (Bosnia-Hercegovina), July 11: Thousands of people gathered on Monday to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre just weeks after the arrest of Ratko Mladic, the alleged mastermind.

Families of around 8,000 Muslims victims of the massacre were heading to the vast cemetery where more than 4,000 white grave stones dot the grounds and 613 more had been newly dug to receive the remains of more victims during the commemoration service. Ahmed Sehic, 26, has come to bury his father who was killed with two of Ahmed’s uncles while trying to flee through the woods to Muslim-held territory.

“I hope it will be easier for me now, I will know where he is, where I can come to visit his grave,” he said.

This year’s anniversary of the July 11, 1995, massacre in Srebrenica, the worst mass killing in Europe since the end of the World War II, comes only weeks after the arrest of then Bosnian Serb army chief Mladic in Serbia.—AFP