Thousands of people in Bosnia have attended a funeral ceremony for 147 Muslims who were killed by Serbian forces during the Bosnian war.

Their remains had been recovered from mass graves close to the northern city of Prijedor and were later identified by forensic experts.

Some of those killed had been tortured or starved to death in detention camps.

Television pictures of emaciated inmates at one of them, the Omarska camp, shocked the world in 1992.

"It's horrible to have a funeral for so many people, killed only because they were Muslims. What happened here will never be forgotten," said Harisa Trto, 50, quoted by AFP news agency.

His brothers, Nizret and Emir, were among those being mourned at the ceremony in Prijedor.

After the ceremony, the victims' bodies were taken for reburial in local cemeteries by their families.

About 100,000 people were killed during the 1992-95 war, most of them civilians.

PHOTO CAPTION

Bosnian Muslims carry coffins of their relatives during a mass funeral in Prijedor July 28, 2007. (Reuters)

BBC