(9 May 1998) Natural Sound

Some 10-thousand people gathered in Mostar on Saturday for the funeral of 186 people.

The victims were casualties of the 1993-1994 Croat-Muslim war, whose bodies were recently exhumed from several mass grave sites in the area.

Local and national leaders of Bosnia's Muslims urged mourners and everyone
else to see the mass mourning as a sign that the bitter past must never be repeated.

Traffic was snarled throughout Mostar on Saturday as thousands of mourners poured into the city to pay their respects at a mass funeral.

The dead were victims of the Croat-Muslim war, all but one of the 186 dead were Muslim.

The sole non-Muslim was a Serb.

Their bodies were exhumed from mass graves in recent months.

Safet Orucevic, Muslim mayor of East Mostar, urged people to refrain from violence and to mark the day with dignity, peace and compassion.

After the ceremony, 133 persons who were identified were to be buried according to family wishes in several cemeteries in the region.

The remaining 53 will be buried in a mass grave.

Autopsies are still being conducted on 36 of the bodies recovered.

Several years ago, allies against Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats and Muslims turned against each other and fought for a year for territory in central and southern Bosnia.

Today, Mostar is one of the most physically devastated and bitterly divided cities in Bosnia.

However, refugees from both sides are starting, slowly, to return to homes in areas controlled by former foes, even in Mostar itself.

Haris Silajdzic, co-prime minister of Bosnia's joint government, said that the funeral was an important victory against fascism, but he called for those responsible to be punished.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Today is the 9th of May, and this day is a day of victory over fascism, and a day for Europe. This is the best proof that fascism is not dead in Europe and that we still have to fight to free this continent and this region of this vicious virus of fascism, but we do belive that the future is possible. That those who committed this genocide must be punished. "
SUPER CAPTION: Haris Silajdzic, co-prime minister of Bosnia's joint government

The Croat-Muslim conflict in southern Bosnia has left more than 800 people missing and presumed dead.

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