Mass funeral on 15th anniversary of Srebrenica

Tens of thousands have gathered in Srebrenica to bury hundreds of massacre victims on the 15th anniversary of the worst war crime in Europe since the Nazi era.

A whole hillside was dug out with graves to take the 775 coffins at the biggest funeral in the town so far.

Still, that was less than a tenth of the total number of Muslim men and boys executed after Serb forces overran the United Nation (UN) protected town in July 1995, during the Bosnian war.

At the time, some 30,000 Bosnian Muslims had flocked to the UN military base in the town's suburb of Potocari for refuge, but when Serb forces came, outnumbered Dutch troops opened the gates.

The Serbs separated out men and boys, putting them on trucks and carting them away, the vast majority never to be seen again.

An estimated 60,000 people were at the memorial centre, which now stands across the road from the former UN base.

The bodies being buried were previously excavated from mass graves and identified through DNA tests.

Serbian President Boris Tadic was the first dignitary to arrive, saying he was coming in an "act of reconciliation," but he was loudly booed by a hostile section of the crowd. Fifteen years later, no one represented the UN at the ceremony.

The US ambassador to Bosnia, Charles English, read a message from President Barack Obama to mark the sombre occasion.

"I join my voice with those who are gathered to mourn a great loss and to reflect on an unimaginable tragedy," he said.