Explosives Found at Site of Srebrenica Massacre in Bosnia

Bosnian Serb police have discovered explosives at the site of a memorial to the up to 8,000 victims of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica. The explosives were uncovered early Tuesday as preparations were underway for commemoration services to mark the 10th anniversary of the killings.

The discovery of a large cache of explosives at the Potocari memorial site comes just days before about 50,000 people are expected to gather to commemorate Europe's worst single atrocity since the World War II.

As many as 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb troops overran the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Organizers say some 570 victims of that bloodshed, between 14 and 75 years old, will be re-buried at the cemetery during the ceremony. Their bodies were exhumed from over 60 mass graves which have been found around Srebrenica.

An official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe tells VOA that Bosnian Serb police are cooperating with the international community to secure the area.

More than 1,000 Srebrenica victims are already buried in the Potocari memorial cemetery.

The alleged architects of the massacre, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his top general, Ratko Mladic, have been indicted by the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal. Both men are still at large.

U.N. Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte says she will not attend the Srebrenica commemorations unless they are captured.

The government of the Serb entity in Bosnia recently apologized to the victims. But the federal parliament of the divided nation failed to adopt a resolution condemning the atrocity, after Serb lawmakers objected to the word "genocide."