Srebrenica Survivors Sue U.N., Dutch

Mike Corder
June 4, 2007
Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/04/AR2007060400367.html

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Thousands of survivors of Europe's worst massacre since World War II filed a lawsuit Monday against the United Nations and the Dutch government for their failure to protect civilians in the Srebrenica safe haven when Bosnian Serb forces overran it in 1995 and slaughtered some 8,000 men.
The long-awaited filing came on the same day that one of the main suspects in the massacre, former Bosnian Serb Gen. Zdravko Tolimir, was to enter a plea before the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
The goal is not financial for the mothers and other survivors: it's about satisfaction, said lawyer Marco Gerritsen, who will represent 6,000 family members of victims in the class action lawsuit.
Unfortunately the U.N. and the Dutch state are not willing to take their responsibility _ they do not even want to talk about it.
In evidence-gathering civil hearings in 2005, a lawyer for the Dutch state argued that compensation claims should be directed at the perpetrators of the massacre: the Bosnian Serb troops under the authority of Gen. Ratko Mladic and political leader Radovan Karadzic, the U.N. tribunal's most-wanted fugitives.
About 200 survivors from the group known as the Mothers of Srebrenica traveled from Bosnia to accompany lawyers as they delivered the civil summons at the Dutch Supreme Court Monday, where claims against the state must be filed. The case will eventually be heard by the Hague District Court. Dutch authorities are expected to pass on details to the U.N., and must file a written reply within several months.
It was unclear whether the U.N. will accept or challenge the jurisdiction of the Dutch court in the case.
The lawsuit's chances of success are uncertain, and the degree of culpability of the U.N. and its Dutch soldiers in the massacre is fiercely debated.
During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the U.N. declared Srebrenica _ which had been besieged by Serb forces _ a U.N.-protected safe area for civilians.
But around 450 Dutch soldiers on peacekeeping duty stood by helplessly as thousands of Bosnian Serb forces stormed the region in July 1995. In a chaotic and menacing situation, Dutch soldiers even assisted in separating the women from the men, who were taken away in buses by the Serb forces and murdered, their bodies buried in mass graves.
An independent study by the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation cleared the Dutch troops of blame, noting they were outnumbered, lightly armed, undersupplied, and under instructions to fire only in self-defense.
However, the institute's 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.
Former U.N. director-general Kofi Annan admitted errors of judgment, regarding Srebrenica in 1999.
The Dutch government has accepted political responsibility for the mission's failure, and gives around $20 million in aid to Bosnia annually, of which a third is reserved for projects related to rebuilding Srebrenica.
Lawyer Gerritsen said that it wasn't enough for the Dutch to compensate the Bosnian government, that it must also compensate the victims personally. He also asserted the U.N. and Dutch government are responsible under the Geneva Convention on Genocide for not doing everything that was reasonably in their power to prevent the massacre. Notably he said they stymied air raids for fear of injuring 40 U.N. troops being held hostage and escalating the conflict _ despite repeated requests from Dutch officers on the ground.
Gerritsen said the initial filing requests $34,000 in compensation for 10 mothers of victims.
Other lawyers representing survivors in the past have said $2.7 billion in compensation would be the starting point for negotiations in a settlement.
The International Court of Justice earlier this year dismissed a claim filed by Bosnia against Serbia seeking compensation for the genocide at Srebrenica; Bosnian Serbs were primarily behind the massacre and links with neighboring Serbia were too tenuous, the court found.
Tolimir was expected to appear before judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal for the first time since he was arrested at the Bosnian border with Serbia last week after two years on the run.
One of Mladic's top aides, he is charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination, murder, persecution, forcible transfer and deportation, as well as murder in connection with the Srebrenica massacre.