Netherlands Won't Charge U.N. Commanders over Srebrenica Massacre
Prosecutors in the Netherlands said Thursday they will not pursue charges against three former Dutch commanders accused of failing to protect Bosnian Muslims during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Survivors of the massacre, the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II, had lodged a genocide and war crimes complaint against the officers.
Following the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, Srebrenica was a U.N.-designated "safe haven" shielded by Dutch troops. But in July 1995 it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces, who loaded thousands of men and boys onto trucks, executed them and threw their bodies into mass graves.
The Dutch prosecutors said there was "no evidence which obliges them to conduct further inquiries" against the former commanders.
"Based on the examination of the facts, the Public Prosecution Service concludes that no criminal charges may be filed against (commander) Thom Karremans, (his deputy) Rob Franken and (personnel officer) Berend Oosterveen," for the death of three Muslims during the massacre, the statement said.
Karremans' lawyer said his client was "relieved and delighted" with the decision.
"It's an important day for both him and his wife," Gert-Jan Knoops told Agence France Presse.
The complaint was made by Hasan Nuhanovic, who lost his parents and younger brother in the massacre, and Mehida, Damir and Alma Mustafic, the widow and children of victim Rizo Mustafic.
Nuhanovic, then 27, was employed as a translator for the Dutch U.N. contingent and Mustafic as an electrician.
The victims sought safety with Dutch troops, but the plaintiffs say they were forced to flee into the hands of the Bosnian Serb army commanded by general Ratko Mladic.
Thursday's decision confirms a previous 1998 ruling by prosecutors not to press charges against any Dutch blue helmets in relation to the Srebrenica massacre.
The role of Dutch troops at Srebrenica continues to cast a shadow in the Netherlands, with an entire cabinet resigning in 2002 after a report laid some blame for the atrocity on it.
Some 2,000 Dutch soldiers served as peacekeepers at the height of the three-year conflict, which left 100,000 people dead and another 2.2 million homeless.
A lawyer for the victims' families, Liesbeth Zegveld, said the case would not be buried -- saying they would lay a complaint with the Arnhem court in eastern Netherlands where the case was being investigated.
"There are huge question marks around the procedure. They (prosecutors) have made a decision in a case that's so complicated that we believe a judge should have looked at it," Zegveld told AFP.
"No criminal investigation was done, no victims were heard, no suspects were heard. No one," she added, asserting the case would eventually be taken to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.
A second, parallel legal process is still running before the Dutch Supreme Court -- where the Dutch state has lodged an appeal after a lower court found the state responsible for the trio's deaths.
Should the court rule in favor of the victims and their families, it could open the door for compensation.
Dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia", Mladic and former Bosnian Serb political chief Radovan Karadzic are currently facing charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity before the Yugoslav war crimes court (ICTY) in The Hague.
In a third separate case, widows of victims at Srebrenica filed a lawsuit in October last year against the U.N. and the Dutch state before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), accusing them of negligence by failing to protect victims.
The Mothers of Srebrenica took their case to the ECHR after attempts in the Netherlands failed.
Source: Agence France Presse
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