Families of Srebrenica victims file complaint in Europe rights court

Families of Srebrenica victims file complaint in Europe rights court

Monday 26 October 2015 at 10:48 AM ET by Justin Cosgrove

©  WikiMedia (Michael Büker)

[JURIST] Lawyers for the families of three Bosnian Muslims killed in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [Britannica backgrounder] on Friday filed a complaint [complaint summary, PDF] with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] seeking to bring charges against three Dutch former-UN commanders. The complaint, filed by lawyers Liesbeth Zegveld and Tomasz Kodrzycki, comes after Dutch prosecutors declined to bring charges in 2013 against the three senior Dutch officers that were on duty at the UN-protected enclave at the time the three victims were killed by the Bosnian Serb army. The lawyers claim the Dutch prosecutors' "refusal to properly investigate, under criminal law, the involvement of General Karremans in the deaths of the three men," constitutes a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF]. They further allege that the investigation was not independent and that prosecutors were under "undue pressure" from the Dutch Defense ministry not to file charges. The Dutch Defense Ministry denies these claims [AP report], with Defense Ministry spokesperson Klaas Meiher calling them unfounded.
Relatives of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre had previously sought justice for the actions of Dutch peacekeeping forces, which they say led to the massacre. In April a Dutch appellate court ruled [JURIST report] that General Thom Karremans could not be held criminally liable, as he was not obligated to realize the Bosnian Muslims could be executed if turned away from the UN peacekeeper compound. In September 2013 the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled [JURIST report] that the state was responsible for the deaths of the three men, finding that the Dutch Battalion acted wrongfully in turning away refugees because it had jurisdiction to comply with the human rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [text]. Relatives of the victims filed the complaint [JURIST report] with the Dutch prosecutor's office in July 2010 alleging that three Dutch soldiers, operating as UN peacekeepers, were complicit in the commission of war crimes and genocide during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. In March 2010 the Hague Appeals Court upheld the UN's immunity from prosecution by rejecting the relatives' claims [JURIST reports]. These relatives, known as the Mothers of Srebrenica, alleged that the Netherlands should be liable for the deaths because Dutch soldiers operating under the UN flag negligently failed to protect civilians by forcing the victims out of "safe area" and turning them over to Bosnian Serbs.