prijava
SARAJEVO, August 28 (FENA) - After the Supreme Court of the Netherlands handed down a final judgment on July 19, establishing partial responsibility of the Netherlands for the deaths of some 300 Srebrenica men killed in July 1995, an international law team representing victims of the Srebrenica genocide dissatisfied with the degree of responsibility established, has announced that an appeal would be filed within the statutory time limit (six months) to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.
Dissatisfied with the extent/degree of responsibility that was found/reduced to just ten percent by the judgment, the victims are resolved to continue the legal battle that began 19 years ago.
Even so, despite the reduced scope of liability, the judgment in the said case constitutes a legal victory.
“After 19 years of working on the case, we were able to achieve a legal victory, because no one in the history of the European and world judiciary has ever been able to get a verdict declaring a country responsible for the failures of its soldiers engaged in a UN mission,” said today a member of international team of lawyers, Semir Guzin at a press conference in Sarajevo.
Guzin, who is staying in Sarajevo with members of the team, attorneys Simon van der Slujis and Marc Gerritsen, in order to harmonize the next legal steps, said that the ruling, which has now become final, found that the Netherlands is responsible for the payment of compensation to the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica.
He stated that that responsibility was unfortunately reduced to an unacceptable ten percent, and that the verdict limited the number of people who could claim compensation and that it cover only those who were killed after they were expelled from the military base in Potočari by members of the Dutch Battalion.
He specified that their heirs/relatives - parents, wives, children, siblings (about 1,000 people) with whom they lived together are entitled to claim compensation and that it would amount to ten percent of the total amount to be determined later on.
This is compensation for non-pecuniary damage (for the suffered psychological pain) that is the same for all and material damage that will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
An international team of lawyers representing victims is currently engaged in the preparation of compensation cases.
Guzin recalls that, in the meantime, victims' associations have been provided with appropriate questionnaires, which should be filled by the claimants in order to be able to specify the harm suffered in each individual case.
“After collecting this information, we open negotiations with the state of the Netherlands in order to try to determine, through the negotiations, out of court, what that compensation would be,” explained Guzin, stating that the process should be completed quickly and that if no agreement is reached, new court proceedings should be initiated.
Responding to a question regarding expectations from an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, a member of the lawyer's team said that the percentage mentioned was expected to change and that it should be100 percent as it was in the first instance verdict (in the second instance, in the appeal proceedings, it was reduced to 30 percent, and in the final decision of the Supreme Court, it came down to only ten percent).
Vice President of the association "Mother of the Srebrenica and Žepa Enclaves" Kada Hotić recalled the suffering of the Srebrenica residents, who were guaranteed security by the UN after demilitarization and the establishment of a "protected zone", and underscored the mothers' determination to persevere in their path of truth and justice.
“We went through what we did and we have the right to justice,” said Hotić, assessing that this is important for Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region and beyond, and expressed her gratitude to the lawyer team for their unselfish engagement in the case.
Participants of the event welcomed the conclusion of the Organizing Committee for the marking of the 24th anniversary of the genocide against Bosniaks at the "UN Safe Zone” of Srebrenica to launch an initiative to nominate the associations that bring together Srebrenica mothers for the Nobel Peace Prize.
(FENA) S. R.
