Srebrenica, justice halfway

A few days before the commemoration of the victims of Srebrenica genocide, past July 13, the Court in the Hague found The Netherlands liable for the deaths of thousands of Muslim Bosnian civilians in Srebrenica. For the first time judges accepted the appeal of the “Mothers of Srebrenica”, a group that represents the families of the victims of the massacre, holding UN peacekeeping forces accountable for not having protected the Muslim enclave. “The state is liable for the loss suffered by relatives of the men who were deported by the Bosnian Serbs from the Dutchbat (Dutch battalion) compound in Potocari in the afternoon of 13 July, 1995”, judge Larissa Elwin said. The ruling explicitly refers to that date, when the Dutchbat, “should have taken into account the possibility that these men would be the victim of genocide”, “had the Dutchbat allowed them to stay at the compound, these men would have remained alive”. But the decision rose more than a doubt. 13 July 1995, the facts. Srebrenica was declared a UN-protected area in April 1993. However, hundreds of Dutch peacekeepers failed to prevent the massacre. On July 11, 1995, some 25 thousand Bosnian refugees left the town headed towards Potocari, just a few kilometres away, where the Dutch UN compound was located. Lieutenant-Colonel Thom Karremans had in fact promised that they would protect them from the advancing Bosnian Serb military and paramilitary forces led by Ratko Mladic. At the same time about 15 thousand men attempted to escape through the woods to reach the free area of Tuzla (very few were saved). The first 5 thousand were allowed to enter the compound of the Dutch peacekeepers. The others remained outside and camped on the lawn in front (where today stands the Memorial to the Victims of the Genocide). For them there was no means of protection, they were left at the mercy of ruthless butchers who began the first raids, the first rapes, the first mass executions. On July 13, the round-ups of 20 thousand left outside were completed. But all 5 thousand Bosnians in the compound “protected” by the blue helmets encountered a similar fate. A questionable ruling. The Netherlands will have to compensate the families of the victims for the death of hundreds of innocent people assembled in its headquarters, yielding to pressure from Mladic that wanted them turned over, but not for the rest of the 8,000 killed in and around the base or fled into the woods, as argued by the prosecutor. “The ruling is a step forward but it’s not very convincing”, Elvira Mujcic, a young Bosnian writer who in those tragic days lost her father and uncle, told SIR Europe. “The news coming from the Hague Tribunal are always the same: the first ten minutes it seems that something wonderful has happened, then you realize that for the umpteenth time it’s a limping justice system”. For writer and journalist Luca Leone, who followed the Srebrenica events up close, it’s a “superficial, political ruling that does not do justice. They were all under the protection of the UN, not just those crowded into the compound. In addition, some of the victims and their families that were rounded up were employed by UN troops – interpreters, translators, logistics personnel – reflecting the fact that the Dutch soldiers under the command of Karremans completely abandoned Muslim civilians at the mercy of Serbian forces. Finally, some women have testified that the Blue Helmets physically carried outside those who refused to go out of the compound, thereby handing them over to Mladic’s murderers. This was not taken into account. The only positive aspect is the impact it could have on the final ruling in Mladic’s and Karadzic’s trials”. Hope for the future. Sarajevo’s journalist Azra Nuehefendic described it as “a historic verdict even if it concerns only a group of people. The lawyers of the victims have already announced that they will not stop here because the whole territory of Srebrenica had been declared a protected area by the United Nations. These are small, albeit important steps, as in past September, when the Supreme Court held Holland liable in the case filed by an ex UN interpreter for the death of his father, his brother and another man. Without truth and justice there will never be a lasting peace. The judgment must be viewed with hopeful eyes for the future. Those who work under the flag of the United Nations to protect civilians will no longer be exempt from liability”.