DUTCH GOVERNMENT AND UN HELPED SERBIAN FASCIST AGGRESSOR COMMIT GENOCIDE IN BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (June 6,2008) – On 16 June 2008 the District Court at The Hague,the Netherlands, will hear the first civil action brought against the Dutch State by relatives of the genocide victims from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica - Hasan Nuhanovic and the family of Rizo Mustafic.

Also,an international team of lawyers filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of approximately 6,000 genocide survivors from the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica against the Dutch State and the United Nations (UN) for helping the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor commit genocide in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

The lawsuit contains 8.000 individual cases with around 6.000 plaintiffs.The first hearing in this case will be held on 18 June 2008 at the District Court at The Hague,the Netherlands.

On June 16,Hasan Nuhanovic and the family of Rizo Mustafic will seek to establish that the Dutch government is responsible for the failure of Dutch troops acting under a United Nations mandate to protect their family members mass murdered by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor in July 1995.

Hasan Nuhanovic, a U.N. interpreter who lost his father, mother and younger brother in the genocide, and the family of Rizo Mustafic, an electrician employed by the Dutch battalion of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), claim that the Dutch government failed to protect the lives of their relatives after the safe area established by U.N. Security Council Resolution around the town of Srebrenica in Eastern Bosnia was allowed to fall into the hands of the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor.

The Nuhanovic and Mustafic families were among thousands of Bosnian civilians who sought protection inside the compound of the U.N. base at Potocari but were then delivered by the Dutch UNPROFOR forces into the hands of the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor.

The genocidal Serbian aggressor had overrun the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995, which had been declared a safe haven by the United Nations two years earlier. The Dutch peacekeepers did not fire a single shot in defense, and the UN did not respond to the Dutch commander's calls for air support.

Dutch soldiers in U.N. blue helmets did absolutely nothing to protect Bosnian civilians.They just watched on as Bosnian women and young girls were taken away and raped by the genocidal Serbian fascist aggressor and thousands of Bosnian civilians being taken away for summary execution.

In a tort action against the Dutch state in which much of the legal debate revolves around the division of responsibility between the United Nations and national states, the plaintiffs' lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld will argue that the Dutch government and the Dutch command within UNPROFOR were responsible for the gross negligence shown by Dutch troops, were primarily concerned for the safety of their national contingent and showed scant regard for the safety of the civilian population entrusted to their care.

The genocide victims' families launched the lawsuit against the Netherlands and the UN. in July 2007, arguing the Dutch U.N. soldiers were to blame for the genocide in Sreberenica because they refused crucial air support to their own troops defending the Bosnian town.

The Dutch U.N. soldiers abandoned the enclave instead,and the genocidal Serbian aggressor mass murdered up to 10,000 Bosnian civilians who had relied on protection from the Dutch U.N. troops.

Former leaders of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, both wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague on genocide charges over Srebrenica, are still on the run.

Dismayed by the failure to bring to justice the two chief suspects, the genocide victims' families say they have turned to a Dutch court for recognition and redress for the tragedy.

The Dutch government has always said its troops were abandoned by the U.N. which gave them no air support, but public documents actually show a network of Dutch military officials within the U.N. blocked air support because they feared their soldiers could be hit by friendly fire, the genocide victims families' lawyers said.

The Dutch government resigned in April 2002 in a scandal over its role in the genocide in Bosnia.Over 3,000 genocide victims have been buried so far in the Genocide Memorial Center in Potocari near Srebrenica. Mass graves are still being excavated.
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