Survivors of Srebenica massacre files legal action against Netherlands over genocide prevention

According to a report by the Guardian, the survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre had launched a civil lawsuit against the Dutch government on Monday. The survivors are claiming that the country could have prevented the victims from getting slain. The Srebrenica massacre was deemed as one of the worst massacre in Europe since World War Two.

The newspaper said that this was not the first time the survivors have filed a civil claim against Netherlands. The first one was done in 2007 by Mothers of Srebrenica in connection with the genocide that happened during the bloody three-year war in the early 1990s in Bosnia. The small enclave was under the protection of the United Nations then until July 11, 1995, and was subsequently overrun by Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic.

According to the complaint, the lightly-armed Dutch peacekeepers, or called the Dutchbat for Dutch battalion, failed to intervene the killing of around 8,000 men and boys, of which their remains were later disposed in mass graves. Thousands of Muslims from nearby villages allegedly camped near the Dutchbat.

One of the complainants' lawyers, Marco Gerritsen, told the district court in The Hague, said, "They did not prevent the murder of thousands of civilians. The protection of civilians is an overriding principle".

The Guardian said that the Mothers of Srebrenica, who represents 6,000 widows and relatives of the victims, had been seeking justice for their last ones in the past several years following the massacre. The International Court of Justice of the UN has already ruled the killings a genocide.

Gert-Jan Houtzagers, who represented the Dutch government in the hearing, said, "It is about Dutch soldiers, but Dutch soldiers wearing blue helmets and therefore completely under UN control. Dutchbat did what it could with a handful of men. They tried to protect as many refugees as possible. "That didn't work, but it's twisting the facts to say they [Dutchbat] led people like lambs to the slaughter."

Courts in the Netherlands had since denied the victims' group's request to prosecute the UN for the genocide and insisted that the organization had immunity, the Guardian said.

Tags

Srebrenica massacre trial, Dutch battalion, United Nations, General Ratko Mladic, Mothers of Srebrenica

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