Survivors as well as relatives of Muslims slaughtered at Srebrenica, Bosnia, began gathering here to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Europe's worst massacre since World War II and finally lay to rest some of the victims.

The commemoration on Monday at the memorial cemetery in Potocari, just outside the eastern Bosnian town, is expected to gather some 50,000 people from across the country as well as numerous international dignitaries.

The remains of 610 massacre victims, who died aged between 14 and 95, will be buried in a funeral service at the site of the slaughter in Potocari. The remains were found in mass graves, more than 60 of which have been uncovered in the area since the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

"Horrible, horrible. I am reliving the horrors again," Beguna Mujic uttered through tears while searching for the graves dug for her son and two brothers who are to be buried on Monday.

Mujic is still looking for the remains of her other two sons.

Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in Srebrenica when Bosnian Serb forces and irregular Serbian police units backed by Belgrade overran the town -- which was in theory under UN protection and guarded by Dutch troops -- in July 1995.

"I still remember the day when we parted, we hugged and kissed in front of the house and they left" to a forested area, Hajra Ademovic said.

"My soul hurts," added Ademovic, who was burying two sons on Monday.

Ademovic's three sons, three grandsons and three brothers were among thousands killed by Serb forces in 1995 while trying to escape through the forest to a territory controlled by the Muslim-led Bosnian government.

Ademovic, who was among thousands of civilians who fled to the Dutch base in Potocari hoping to get UN protection, has so far found only the bodies of her two sons and a grandchild.

As Dutch peacekeepers looked on, men and boys were separated from women in Potocari to be slain.

The women and children were ordered onto buses and deported to government-controlled territory.

International dignitaries including foreign ministers Philippe Douste-Blazy of France, Jack Straw of Britain and Bernard Bot of The Netherlands are expected to join massacre survivors and families of victims at the ceremony.

A top Serbian delegation led by President Boris Tadic will attend the Srebrenica commemoration for the first time.

The United States has said that a "senior delegation" will attend, but no further details were immediately available.

The president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), American judge Theodor Meron, and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn are also expected in Potocari.

Last week police found large quantities of explosives near the memorial cemetery, prompting a further tightening of security.

More than 1,500 police, including special forces with sniffer dogs, were deployed in and around Srebrenica.

The Srebrenica genocide is a key charge laid by the ICTY against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who has been on trial at The Hague for three years.

More than 1,300 bodies identified using DNA analysis have been buried so far at the cemetery, but more than 4,500 body bags containing human remains still await identification.

"What a horrible world we live in when the only wish a mother can have for her child is to see him buried," said Bektic Ajsa.

She is to bury her husband on Monday, but she is still searching for the body of her son.

The alleged masterminds of the slaughter, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his army chief Ratko Mladic, are still in hiding somewhere in the Balkans.

PHOTO CAPTION

A man searches through more than 600 coffins with remains of victims of Srebrenica massacre waiting for the funeral in a factory hall in Potocari July 10, 2005. (Reuters)