Hundreds line streets of Bosnia to pay respects to 175 victims of Srebrenica massacre Tuesday July 09,2014

Hundreds of people lined the streets of Bosnia's capital today to pay their respects to 175 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. 

Mourners watched tearfully as coffins carrying the remains of the newly-identified victims were carried by lorry down the main street of Sarajevo.

Some tucked flowers into the green canvas hiding the coffins, while others prayed silently as the truck stopped in front of the Bosnian presidency. 

The victims, whose remains were discovered in mass graves and identified through DNA analysis, are being taken to Potocari cemetery in the town of Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia. 

 Bosnians pray in front of 409 coffins of newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Potocari Memorial Center, near Srebrenica July 11, 2013.

They will be buried on Friday July 11,2014, alongside 6,006 previously-discovered victims, to commemorate the 19th anniversary of Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.

People gather at the Potocari Memorial Center in Potocari, 75 miles northeast of Sarajevo, where the 175 newly-identified victims will be buried on Friday July 11,2014

Families lay 175 newly identified Srebrenica victims to rest on Friday July 11,2014 as the town marks the 19th anniversary of Europe's worst massacre since World War Two

 

 1995 Srebrenica Massacre -Europe's Worst Atrocity Since WWII

The massacre, which took place on July 11, 1995, involved the execution and mass burial of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

Despite being in a UN safe zone, the town was only protected by a lightly armoured Dutch peace-keeping force of 600 men when it was attacked by  Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic

The forces rounded up 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys from Srebrenica and surrounding villages, before stripping them off their clothes and possessions, executing them and burying them in mass graves.

They also forcibly transferred 25,000-30,000 women and children to Muslim areas.

So far, the remains of 6,066 people have had their remains exhumed from mass graves in the Srebrenica region for reburial in the Potocari cemetery. 

The massacre took place just a few months before the end of Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, which claimed some 100,000 lives in total.

In May 2011, General Ratko Mladic was arrested in Lazarevo, near Zrenjanin in the Banat region in northern Serbia, on suspicion of 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

  General Ratko Mladic defence case began at The Hague on May 19,2014