Witness Testifies on Srebrenica Massacre
The first witness in a civil suit filed by two families of victims of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, testified Thursday that Dutch troops protecting the enclave were unprepared for a Serb onslaught and felt “frustrated and powerless” when it came.
Asked what the peacekeepers had done to prepare themselves for the Serb attack on the Muslim town, the witness, personnel officer Berend Oosterveen, replied, “We hadn’t considered that.”
The families say the Netherlands should be held responsible and pay compensation after Dutch troops failed to prevent the July killings of more than 7,500 men and boys. It was the worst civilian slaughter in Europe since World War II.
A lawyer for the Dutch government, Meine Dijkstra, said the victims’ families should seek compensation from Serbia, not the Netherlands. “That’s the address where you should be, the people who committed the murders,” he said.
Although a previous Dutch government accepted political responsibility for the failure of its forces, Dijkstra said the troops had committed no illegal acts.
The Hague District Court is holding preliminary hearings to decide whether there are sufficient grounds for the suit to come to trial. Oosterveen is the first of seven Dutch witnesses.
The suit is a test case. If it succeeds, about 50 others could follow.
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