MOSTAR, Jan 5 (Hina) - Lawyers representing families of victims of the 1995 Srebrenica tragedy will ask the Netherlands and the United Nations to pay damages of one billion dollars for the massacre which Serb forces committed against
8,000 local Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), when they overran the UN safe haven in the east Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
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MOSTAR, Jan 5 (Hina) - Lawyers representing families of victims of the
1995 Srebrenica tragedy will ask the Netherlands and the United
Nations to pay damages of one billion dollars for the massacre which
Serb forces committed against 8,000 local Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims),
when they overran the UN safe haven in the east Bosnian town of
Srebrenica.#L#
A lawyer, Semir Guzin, who represents the families of the victims of
the largest-scale massacre since the end of the Second World War, told
the Federal News Agency in Bosnia (FENA) that the families regarded
the UN and the Netherlands whose soldiers were deployed in the safe
haven as jointly responsible for the massacre committed by Serb forces
led by General Ratko Mladic, wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal
(ICY) for war crimes.
"If possible, we would like to see that the Netherlands and the United
Nations pay damages together," Guzin, a lawyer from the southern city
of Mostar, was quoted by FENA as saying on Sunday.
He went on to say that the plaintiffs were very well aware who had
committed genocide in Srebrenica, but the families also believed that
by failing to take appropriate measures and failing to carry out the
UN mission in the then UN safe zone, the World Organisation and the
Netherlands made it possible for the Serb forces to overrun Srebrenica
in July 1995 and commit massacre.
The lawyer added that the figure of one billion dollars was not
arbitrary but the starting point for the calculation was a proposal by
a Pakistani diplomat to the UN that the standard should be set up
under which each family of UN soldier killed in a peace mission should
be given 50,000 dollars.
The Mostar lawyer announced that the international legal team would
propose to the Netherlands to reach out-of-court settlement on the
payment of damages. If they fail to settle out of court, the lawyers
will submit the action before the International Court of Justice by
March.
He went on to say that the international legal team, consisting of
lawyers from Mostar and from the Becker&Pollakow firm in Miami, was
trying to contact the Dutch government with the help of international
and European politicians in order to avoid a protracted legal process.
The suit against the Netherlands would be the second case of action
for damages submitted by plaintiffs on a mass-scale in history of
European judiciary. Jews were first to take action against France,
Germany and Austria claiming compensation for the Holocaust. The
negotiations on this issue took eight years.
(Hina) ms