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Dutch court: United Nations can’t be charged in Srebrenica
massacre THE HAGUE: Survivors of the 1995 Serb assault that killed
8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica cannot sue the
United Nations (UN) in the Netherlands for failing to protect their
families, a Dutch court ruled Thursday.
“The court . . . has no jurisdiction to hear
the action against the United Nations,” read a judgment handed
down by the district court in The Hague. And “ . . . the Court
concludes that in international law practice the absolute immunity
of the UN is the norm and is respected.”
The UN claimed immunity in a bid by a group of
survivors to hold it accountable for the massacre of some 8,000
Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the enclave guarded by Dutch UN
troops.
The plaintiffs comprise a group calling itself
the “Mothers of Srebrenica,” representing some 6,000 survivors
of the massacre, and 10 individual widows who lost their husbands in
the assault.
They were seeking a trial for the UN and the
Dutch state for peacekeeping troops’ alleged failure to protect
the enclave. They also want compensation.
But the Dutch state brought a
counter-application, arguing the court had no jurisdiction to hear a
case against the UN, which, it argued, enjoyed immunity.
The district court agreed, ordering the original
plaintiffs to pay the costs of the matter.
Alix Hagedorn, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said
they would appeal the decision and approach the European Court of
Human Rights if unsuccessful.
“That the UN has unlimited immunity even if a
genocide happens, we can’t accept,” he said after the judgment.
“If we go to the Court of Human Rights, we are
going to succeed. It is necessary. It is difficult but necessary for
the credibility of the UN.”
The case against the Dutch state would continue,
Hagedorn told Agence France-Presse, but the court may decide to put
it on hold pending the outcome of the appeal process in the UN
matter so as not to split the two issues.
Srebrenica was a UN-protected Muslim enclave
until July 11, 1995, when it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces who
loaded thousands of men and boys onto trucks, executed thousands,
and threw their bodies into mass graves.
The Serbs brushed aside lightly-armed Dutch UN
peacekeepers in the “safe area” where thousands of Muslims from
surrounding villages had gathered for protection.
-- AFP
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