Going dutch, ending up dead?

 

 

In an unprecedented move that will have all eyes in Europe fixed on it in days to come, two Bosnian families appealed with Dutch adjudicators last week to hold the Netherlands accountable for failing to shield their families during the 1995 carnage in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica. The cases of two UN staff — Hasan Nuhanovic, who lost his family and Rizo Mustafic, who died — are seen as a test for a wider class action suit.

The UN Charter says that to uphold global harmony and security, all affiliate states should make accessible required armed forces. Almost 15 years ago in Bosnia, troops from many countries were heeding that call. Yet, in 1995, some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were slaughtered when Srebrenica - under Dutch UN troops - was overwhelmed by a powerful Serb force. The Dutch looked on feebly as the Serbs separated men from women, dragged them off to slaughter sites and expelled thousands of the others, mostly wives and children of those massacred.

Talking to TSI, Semir Guzin, noted human rights activist from Bosnia, also lawyer for the victims' group "Mothers of Srebrenica", said, “By failing to avert the massacre, the UN and the Netherlands are accountable for genocide. We have evidence that Dutch government issued direct orders to troops to protect the lives of their soldiers, not of the civilians.”

The UN war crimes tribunal set up to indict war crimes committed all through the break-up of the erstwhile Yugoslavia is still in quest of the two key criminal suspects in the Srebrenica carnage: Gen. Ratko Mladic, who commanded Serb forces in Bosnia, and Radovan Karadzic, political head of Bosnian Serbs. Meanwhile, several countries are examining the court edict warily, for if the Netherlands is prosecuted it may well make governments cagier of committing troops for peacekeeping operations.