Off the wire
• Hungarian military craft catches fire in midair, pilot hospitalized with burns  • Belarus eager to restore cooperation with Sweden after diplomatic war  • 1st LD Writethru: Oil prices drop on ample supplies  • 1st LD Writethru: UN Security Council urges urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance to Yemen  • Feature: Forcible recruitment plunges younsters into abyss in S. Sudan  • Urgent: Oil prices drop on ample supplies  • 1st LD Writethru: Gold trades lower on Greece talks  • Urgent: U.S. dollar falls despite upbeat data  • Tests on Ireland's BSE cow confirm isolated case  • U.S. House easily passes key element of President Obama's trade agenda  
You are here: 　 Home

Dutch State pays damage to three Srebrenica victims

Xinhua, June 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Dutch State has paid the families of three victims of the Srebrenica massacre, almost 20 years ago, compensation and offered apologies, the Dutch government announced on Thursday.

With the agreement and apologies a long-running case comes to an end. The relatives filed a lawsuit in 2006 because they felt that the Netherlands was liable for the deaths of their loved ones. The amount of the compensation was not made known, but according to Dutch national broadcaster NOS five relatives were paid tens of thousands of euros each.

As part of a United Nations peacekeeping force during the Bosnian War the Dutch battalion Dutchbat had the task of protecting the UN designated "safe area" in Srebrenica from March 1994.

However, in July 1995 they were not able to prevent the Bosnian Serb forces of commander Ratko Mladic from entering the enclave. After the fall an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys were taken away and killed by the Bosnian Serb army.

Bosnian Husan Nuhanovic, an interpreter of Dutchbat, and the relatives of electrician Riza Mustafic, also working for Dutchbat, started a lawsuit against the Dutch government in 2006. The electrician and the brother and father of the interpreter were killed by Bosnian Serbs after Dutchbat soldiers had told them to leave the compound.

In 2012 the court in The Hague already ruled that the Dutch State was liable and in September 2013 the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal in cassation by the State. It was therefore clear that the State must compensate the damage, but the Netherlands initially offered 20,000 euros for each relative, which was rejected. After long negotiations the Dutch government communicated an agreement on Thursday.

In June last year, Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert talked with the relatives and already offered her apologies on behalf of the government, which was made public today. The Dutch State on Thursday repeated its regret that Mustafic and father and son Nuhanovic had to leave the compound. Endit