Thousands of Muslims from across Bosnia commemorated in Srebrenica Europe's worst atrocity since World War II and finally laid to rest some of the victims of the slaughter. Some 20,000 people attended a memorial service in the eastern town where more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were slain by Serb forces in nine years ago in 1995. The 338 victims buried at the memorial cemetery in Potocari, just outside Srebrenica, were aged between 15 and 77. They were identified after being exhumed from more than 60 mass graves uncovered in the area since the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 war. "Reconciliation is necessary, but the truth and justice are a prerequisite for it to be achieved," the Muslim chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency Sulejman Tihic said as he addressed the mourners in Srebrenica. "Those who are responsible for Srebrenica and other crimes must be arrested and tried ... war criminals cannot be national heroes," Tihic said in a clear reference to Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his army chief Ratko Mladic, the alleged masterminds of the massacre. The two are still on the run, while most Bosnian Serbs perceive them as heroes. Wails, sobbing and sounds of prayer broke the silence as remains of the newly identified victims, wrapped in green cloth, were lowered into the ground. "It is only today that I know I will never see my brother again," said a tearful Azemina Nuhanovic, whose brother Husein, killed at the age of 39, was one of those buried Sunday. "All these years I hoped to find him alive, but that hope is now dead and it breaks my heart." Nuhanovic, whose husband and another brother had also been killed during the 1992-95 war, came back to Srebrenica with her son and four daughters four years ago. They are among only a small fraction of the town's 27,000-strong pre-war Muslim population who have returned to their homes, where they are often the target of verbal harassment by Serbs. For some of the survivors who were in Srebrenica Sunday, the memorial cemetery -- officially opened last year -- is a "painful reminder of the crime, but also a sign of hope." "The fact that our killed loved ones have found their resting place in Srebrenica gives us hope that we will also return one day," said massacre survivor Esrefa Alic, who now lives in the northeastern town of Tuzla. So far 1,327 bodies, identified by DNA analysis, have been buried at the cemetery but there are still more than 5,000 body bags filled with human bones awaiting identification. Sunday's ceremony was held amid outrage over the decision of Dragan Cavic, president of the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, not to attend. Cavic instead went to the inauguration in Belgrade of Serbian President Boris Tadic. Slavica Stojanovic, one of some forty peace activists who arrived in Srebrenica from Belgrade to pay respect to the massacre victims, said that she had been "bitter because the top Serb officials" had not been here. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A man sits next to the casket of his son, among 337 other victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys, at the joint cemetery outside the eastern town July 11, 2004. (REUTERS)