State Netherlands is responsible for the deaths of three Bosniaks in Srebrenica in 1995. This is the decision of the Supreme Court in The Hague, at the request of Hasan Nuhanovic, an interpreter in the Dutch battalion who lost his father, mother and brother, and Rizo Mustafic, who worked as an electrician in the Dutch battalion in Potocari. The Supreme Court in this decision answered the question of whether the actions of the Dutch battalion can be attributed to the state of Netherlands according to the references of public international law.
In July 1995, the army of RS killed Rizo Mustafic, an electrician who worked for Dutch battalion, and Ibro and Muhamed Nuhanovic, father and brother of the interpreter Hasan Nuhanovic, after they were expelled from the Dutch base in Srebrenica.
For the deaths of three Bosniaks from Friday is officially responsible the state of Netherlands because, according to the decision of the Supreme Court, it had effective control over the disputed behavior of the Dutch battalion, or as stated in the decision – actions of the Dutch battalion can be attributed to the state.
Hasan Nuhanovic waited for this recognition for more than 10 years, when he and his family Mustafic initiated civil proceedings against the Netherlands.
“And that’s the most important reason which is why I started this process – the state to recognize that members of the Dutch battalion surrendered men into the hands of the executioners. It was hard to listen to lawyers of this state several times during the past 10 years who interpreted twisted information – as what I saw with my own eyes never happened. The Supreme Court has confirmed this to be the responsibility attributed to the state of Netherlands, but at the same time that it can be attributed to the UN as well, and that one does not exclude the other.”
Netherlands district court in 2008 concluded that the Netherlands is not responsible for the failure of its troops to protect the enclave of Srebrenica in 1995, but prosecutors appealed the verdict, which was accepted three years later. After the Supreme Court rejected the state and confirmed the second instance verdict, the case was finally over.
For several years now, the civil lawsuits brought against the state of Netherlands and the UN filed by Women of Srebrenica is lead before the Court in The Hague. Although the Court found that the UN has absolute immunity, the proceedings continued in a part of the lawsuit against the Netherlands, which is why the Association of Women of Srebrenica consider the verdict of the Supreme Court as extremely important.
(Source: slobodnaevropa.mobi)
