SREBRENICA, Sept 20: Former US president Bill Clinton inaugurated a memorial on Saturday to thousands of Muslim victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, and called for the arrest of fugitive leaders behind the atrocity.

About 20,000 people welcomed Mr Clinton at a large complex due to become the final resting place for the victims of the worst organised slaughter since World War Two.

“Bad people who lusted for power killed those good people simply because of who they were,” Mr Clinton said, standing before a pagoda-style temple dominating the memorial. “They sought power through genocide.”

Families of some of the estimated 8,000 killed favoured Mr Clinton to open the shrine because of his personal efforts to end the 1992-5 war in which some 200,000 people were killed.

Many wept as the remains of a further 107 victims were laid to rest alongside 882 already buried here, among them three Delic brothers and their father, the youngest 17 and the oldest 75.

Columns of male relatives bore caskets draped in green. A stone inscribed “Srebrenica, July 11, 1995” was covered with bouquets.—Reuters