Srebrenica relatives pursue Dutch compensation

AMSTERDAM - A Dutch court opened hearings yesterday in a compensation case against the Netherlands by relatives of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslims in the UN "safe area" assigned to Dutch peacekeepers.

Lightly-armed Dutch soldiers stood by helplessly in July 1995 as rampaging Bosnian Serb forces rounded up Muslims before summarily executing them in Europe's worst massacre since World War Two. At least 7000 men and boys were killed.

A lawyer for a Bosnian Muslim family and a Bosnian Muslim man who lost relatives will question witnesses in preliminary hearings until July 1 at The Hague District court in a bid to help decide if they can pursue the Dutch State for liability.

The former Dutchbat commander at Srebrenica, Thom Karremans, and former Dutch Defence Minister Joris Voorhoeve will be among seven witnesses to be questioned in the preliminary hearings.

"If the facts turn out to be sufficient for our evidence we hope to get a judgment of wrongful behaviour," said Liesbeth Zegveld, the lawyer representing relatives of the victims.

The relatives would then seek financial compensation from the Dutch State.

The lawyer wants to establish whether she can build a case against the Netherlands for failing to protect victims and failing to warn the outside world about the potential threat of a massacre when Serb forces took the enclave in eastern Bosnia.

Former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok's government resigned in 2002 to take responsibility for its shortcomings during the peacekeeping mission after a report condemned politicians and the military for sending Dutch troops on an impossible mission.

Kok told Bosnians in 2002 they should blame Bosnian Serbs for the slaughter and not the Dutch. Two former Dutch ministers, including Voorhoeve, also said in 2001 that Dutch peacekeepers were not to blame for the massacre.

The Netherlands is the seat of the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where Slobodan Milosevic is on trial charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s.

Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic -- who are both fugitives -- as well as several other Bosnian Serb army officers have been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal for the Srebrenica massacre.

- REUTERS