Srebrenica survivors sue UN and Dutch govt
Lawyers for thousands of survivors of Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War are suing the United Nations and the Dutch government.
A writ being filed today accuses them of failing to protect civilians in the Srebrenica safe haven when Bosnian Serb forces overran it in 1995 and slaughtered around 8,000 men.
“In the last three years a strong case has been built against the Dutch state and the UN, who will be held jointly responsible for the fall of the enclave and the genocide that took place there as a result,” Dutch law firm Van Diepen Van der Kroef said in a statement.
“The procedure must lead to a result whereby the relatives who survived this drama can finally get recognition and a sense of satisfaction.”
The lawyers did not give more details of the suit.
About 200 survivors, known as the Mothers of Srebrenica, are travelling from Bosnia to accompany lawyers as they deliver a civil summons to the Dutch government this afternoon. Dutch authorities are expected to pass on details to the UN
During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the United Nations declared Srebrenica – which had been besieged by Serb forces – a UN-protected safe area for civilians.
But around 450 soldiers on peacekeeping duty there stood by helplessly and even assisted in separating women from the men when Bosnian Serb forces stormed the region in July 1995. The men were taken away in buses by the Serb forces and murdered, their bodies dumped in mass graves.
An independent study later cleared the Dutch troops of most blame, noting they were outnumbered, lightly armed and under instructions to fire only in self-defence.
But the 2002 report assigned partial blame to the Dutch government for setting the troops up to fail, prompting the Cabinet of prime minister Wim Kok to resign. The study also found that a French UN general inexplicably failed to send air support when it was requested, as had been agreed in advance.
The Dutch government gives around €14.75m in aid to Bosnia every year, of which a third is reserved to projects related to rebuilding Srebrenica.
Bosnian Serb military leader General Ratko Mladic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic have been indicted for genocide in the Srebrenica massacre but remain on the run.
The legal move against the UN and the Netherlands comes on the day Zdravko Tolimir, a senior Mladic aide during the slaughter in Srebrenica, appears before judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal for the first time since he was arrested last week.
Tolimir was charged in 2005 by the UN tribunal with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination, murder, persecution, forcible transfer and deportation, as well as murder in connection with the Srebrenica massacre.
