Tue Apr 8, 2014
Survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia have opened a civil suit against the Dutch government, saying the country’s UN peacekeepers failed to protect them.
A group of grieving widows and mothers calling themselves, The Mothers of Srebrenica, brought the suit before a court in The Hague on Monday.
The group alleges that Dutch peacekeepers serving under the UN failed to prevent the killings, which left thousands of Muslims dead.
“They did not prevent the murder of thousands of civilians,” Marco Gerritsen, the group’s lawyer, told the court.
The Netherlands, however, argues that it had no direct control over the Dutchbat troops during the peacekeeping operation with Dutch government lawyer Bert-Jan Houtzagers telling the court that “Dutchbat did what it could with a handful of men.”
“They tried to protect as many refugees as possible,” he added.
The Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina was under UN protection when it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of General Ratko Mladic in July 1995.
Over 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered over the subsequent days and their bodies dumped in mass graves in Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War.
A case against the UN at the European Court for Human Rights last year brought by the Mothers of Srebrenica was unsuccessful after it ruled the UN have immunity from prosecution.
The families of victims and Srebrenica genocide survivors say granting immunity to the UN was disappointing to them.
The proceedings against the Dutch government, heard on Monday, had been put on hold pending the outcome of the case against the UN.
Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/08/357659/dutch-govt-sued-over-bosnia-massacre/.
Survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia have opened a civil suit against the Dutch government, saying the country’s UN peacekeepers failed to protect them.
A group of grieving widows and mothers calling themselves, The Mothers of Srebrenica, brought the suit before a court in The Hague on Monday.
The group alleges that Dutch peacekeepers serving under the UN failed to prevent the killings, which left thousands of Muslims dead.
“They did not prevent the murder of thousands of civilians,” Marco Gerritsen, the group’s lawyer, told the court.
The Netherlands, however, argues that it had no direct control over the Dutchbat troops during the peacekeeping operation with Dutch government lawyer Bert-Jan Houtzagers telling the court that “Dutchbat did what it could with a handful of men.”
“They tried to protect as many refugees as possible,” he added.
The Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina was under UN protection when it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces under the command of General Ratko Mladic in July 1995.
Over 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered over the subsequent days and their bodies dumped in mass graves in Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War.
A case against the UN at the European Court for Human Rights last year brought by the Mothers of Srebrenica was unsuccessful after it ruled the UN have immunity from prosecution.
The families of victims and Srebrenica genocide survivors say granting immunity to the UN was disappointing to them.
The proceedings against the Dutch government, heard on Monday, had been put on hold pending the outcome of the case against the UN.
Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/08/357659/dutch-govt-sued-over-bosnia-massacre/.
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